Alter Ego
by Menasor2
Summary: In a postapocalyptic wasteland called as the Lost Ground, a mercenary known as the Demon Blade strives to maintain his freedom and protect the one person who is important to him. Along the way he encounters many of the characters from the anime as both en
1. Alter Ego: Prologue

Introduction

Hey, my name's Rob Kelly. I am an Alter User and I live in a place called the Lost Ground. In case you didn't know it used to be part of mainland Japan until about twenty years ago when something caused a huge seismic catastrophe that separated it completely from the mainland and demolished almost all traces of civilized society in the Lost Ground. Everything was completely chaotic in those first few years, and it still is, with food shortages, groups of bandits running wild, and aftershocks from the initial catastrophe. But shortly after that an even more fantastic and terrifying thing appeared; the beings that became known as alter users appeared. There were very few of us in the beginning but there are more and more of us popping up every year. We have the ability to mentally break down the matter surrounding us and restructure it into something given form by our minds known as alters. These alters are embodiments of our inner minds. Their forms reflect our personalities. No two alters are exactly alike(as far as I know). Their forms range from being purely mental like mind control or telepathy, to being able to create super powered armor or an army of robots or tanks to fight at your command. But there is a lot of middle ground and some are very hard to describe. These powers also evolve as the alter user develops his mind and body, becoming more powerful over time. There are a lot of competing powers in the Lost Ground and with the potential for profit and power that alter abilities posses, it is only a matter of time before some serious shit starts to go down...


	2. Alter Ego Chapter 1: The Demon Blade

**Alter Ego Part. 1**

Chapter 1

"HEY ROB, WAKE UP"

With that I jump so high that I fly right out of bed and slam right onto the floor headfirst. I look around groggily and yell, "What the hell was that!"

It is then that I see Megumi standing at the door to my room laughing hysterically.

"Ugh, why do you do that? You know how I am in the mornings"

Still giggling she says "But it's just so funny to see you freak out like that Mister super tough Alter user, and besides breakfast is getting cold"

"Yeah, whatever" I say grumpily.

I really don't know why I put up with her. I think to myself.

Finally I drag myself off of the floor and start to get dressed. As I'm getting ready I look out the slightly broken window and see the sun rising on another day in the Lost Ground.

Me and Megumi have been able to make a pretty decent life for ourselves in this place. We live inside of the ruins of an old inn or something that wasn't totally demolished in the great uprising. It's pretty run down, but hey, a home is a home, right?

I make my way to where we eat and sit down. Megumi comes over and hands me a plate of something. I look down at it, raise an eyebrow at her and say "What is this stuff?"

"It's supposed to be eggs. I got it at the relief station this morning."

"Yeah right, I'd bet my right arm that they don't eat this shit in the city."

"Well we're almost out of food so you'd better start bringing in a bit more money, maybe you could find a legitimate job somewhere..."

I really don't remember exactly when or where I first met Megumi. I do know it was a couple years after I lost my parents and my powers first emerged. I remember I was around fifteen and I was just wandering the wasteland when I decided to take a rest in some nearby ruins. When I got inside I thought I heard a noise that sounded like crying. I followed the noise for a little while and found where it was coming from. It was a girl about my age. She looked awful. She was dirty and looked like she hadn't eaten in a pretty long time. When she noticed me she looked at me with the most fearful eyes I had ever seen and said, "Please don't hurt me"

I was so shocked, I couldn't believe that she found me that threatening.

I finally managed to say, "I'm not going to hurt you, what do you think I am some kind of thug? I'm just trying to find a place to rest for a while."

She seemed to calm down when I said that and I sat down across from her. After sitting in silence for quite a while I asked her "So, what's your name?"

"Megumi Taisen, what's yours?"

"Rob Kelly" I replied, "What are you doing is a place like this?"

"I lost my parents, my village was attacked by a gang led by an alter user about two weeks ago and I got separated from them."

This got my attention and I asked her "Was your village attacked by an alter user that could manipulate fire?"

She looked shocked and answered "Yes it was." and then she started crying again.

My heart started to pound when I heard that, "Are you absolutely sure about that?"

"Y-yes, I-I'm sure." more crying.

"Do you remember where your village is?"

"No and even if I did I don't want to go back."

I sighed feeling very disappointed, but realized I had to take care of the situation at hand. I had a scared, starving, lonely girl in front of me and I realized that I had to take care of her. We both had no one at the moment and I guess we were looking for companionship.

So I was the first one to speak.

"Hey Megumi, do you want to come with me?"

"Huh, why?"

"Well, I plan on heading out of here soon and it would make me feel better if you came with me. I also have a score to settle with the alter user that destroyed your village. He took something important from me when I was little and I have been looking for him since. If you help me I'll help you. I'm also an alter user and I'll protect you until you decide that you don't want to hang around with me anymore. You can leave any time you want. Oh, and if you can cook better than me I'll consider it an equal trade.

I really didn't expect her to agree to this so I turned around to leave but what I heard surprised me,

"Okay, sure, I'll go"

When I turned around I saw that she had a smile on her face and seemed much more relaxed than before. We're really not boyfriend and girlfriend but we've been together ever since...

"All right, All right." I say exasperated "I'll get in contact with that guy Kimishima, he usually has pretty good jobs for me"

"Doesn't he usually hang around with that Kazuma guy? Isn't he an alter user too?"

"Yeah, he's pretty good too. I've fought against him a couple times while on assignment and it's always ended in a draw."

"Isn't he supposed to be Kimishima's main guy?"

"Yeah but I should be able to get a good assignment from him."

"Alright, finish up and I'll see you later."

"Okay, see you Megumi"

Before I left I got my signature camouflage trench coat and put on my lucky helix chain necklace. Once I got those on I was ready, I had become my alter ego, the infamous Demon Blade.

About an hour later I pull my buggy up to the old doctors office where you can usually find Kimishima. It's kinda dangerous here (especially for me) since this is where that guy Kazuma lives. He may be a hot headed idiot, but he's a really good fighter and extremely dangerous to fight against since his style of fighting is so unpredictable. I steel myself walk up to the door and cautiously knock on the door. After a couple seconds the door flies open, I hear someone say "YOU!" and I get grabbed by the front of my shirt and shoved into the wall. When I get my bearings I realize that Kazuma has me pushed up against the wall ready to shove his fist through my skull.

"What are _you_ doing here! If you're here for a fight you've got one!" he said

"Hey, whoa, take it easy man, I'm not here for a fight. I'm just here looking for Kimishima."I said as calmly as I could.

"Why?"

"I need to talk to him about a job, I know he's got good connections."

"It's alright Kazuma, put him down. He's cool." I hear Kimishima say from behind Kazuma.

"Fine." Kazuma says as he reluctantly puts me down. "Just keep him away from me." He says as he slowly walks past me into the house. "I'm keeping an eye on you" I hear him say.

When he goes inside I turn to Kimishima and say "Yikes, what a bulldog."

"Well you should know better than to come to his house and knock on his door."

"Yeah, well, this was one of the places I was sure you would be. I really need to talk to you about a job."

"Okay, Step into my office." and he motions toward his car.

Part II

"Hey man, do you think my buggy is gonna be alright?"

"Yeah, it'll be fine, don't worry."

As we drive to the job Kimishima fills me in on the details.

"Here's the thing, there is a HOLD labor camp that is using inners captured from surrounding villages to expand the city's borders. This includes women and children. They make them do back breaking labor all day and they barely get any food. The facility is guarded by a B-class alter user from HOLY. He's rumored to have never lost a fight to any native alter. The job pays 3500."

"Really." I say, "This should be very interesting"

"Just be careful." he says as we pull up near where the camp is.

"Relax, this won't be a problem." I say, "Stick around, I'll observe them for the rest of the day to get their routine down and attack tonight. This is gonna be a good show"

"You got it. I need to verify that you complete the job anyway."

Twelve hours later

I'm standing on a cliff above the compound looking down into it. I've determined that there is a garrison of about twenty to twenty-five soldiers, various support staff, and the one HOLY agent. After observing for the majority of the day, the way the captured inners are being treated and the behavior of the soldiers and that HOLY officer have sickened and pissed me off more than I thought possible. I could not wait for the shift change at midnight to sink my blades into those guys.

Then I see the guys at the perimeter guard stations get up and leave for the shift change. It's very sloppy of them to leave gaps in their defense like that, but I guess if your just watching defenseless people you don't need tight defenses. I'll make them pay for that mistake, invading our homeland, and hurting these people. As I stand up I hear Kimishima say "It's showtime, huh?"

I close my eyes and focus my mind, I channel my anger and all my other feelings into the center of my being. As I do I feel the familiar surge of power well up inside of me. When it reaches it's peak I open my eyes and flex my arms and legs. My hair begins to rise and stick up as I concentrate. Portions of the ground and rocks near me suddenly break down into the alter mist and begin to flow towards me. My mind gives shape to the mist as it swirls around my forearms and lower legs. As the mist begins to coalesce dark green and black armor begins to grow around my forearms and shins. The gauntlets are heavily plated but light as air to me. Each of my fingers end in wicked looking claws and a bladed spine sticks out past my elbows. They allow me to grow various blades and claws from my hands. The greaves on my legs look like a insect-like exoskeleton molded to my skin and they go all the way up to my knees. They increase my agility and allow me to move almost silently. The overall effect of the armor is that it increases my strength, speed, reflexes, and agility by tenfold over what they usually are. There is also a dramatic increase in all of my senses which helps me fight in environments that would be a disadvantage to those without the sensory boost.

Finally it's over. It always seems like the change takes forever when, in reality, it was only a few seconds. I let go the breath I had been holding and smile at the familiar feeling of power my alter gives me. I look behind me at Kimishima and say "See ya in a few minutes." and I disappear silently into the dark a second later.

I race down the cliff as fast and silent as a shadow with my trenchcoat flying behind me and I can feel my anticipation and the smile on my face growing as I speed towards the compound. Just before the wall, I leap as high as I can and make it about three fourths of the way up the wall. When I get close enough I extend the blades from each of my fingers and the front of my feet and dig them into the wall. Once I'm secured I begin to scale the wall like a spider towards the top. Even now I can hear the inners sleeping in their shacks and the guards talking and walking back to their posts in the compound. I hurry and make the top of the wall and quickly jump on top of one of those armored tank-things those assholes from the city like to drive and crouch down to hide.

"So far so good." I think to myself. "I haven't been seen...yet."

I hear talking below me and I peer down from my perch to see my first victims. They have no idea I'm there. As they walk through the space between two of the armored vehicles I leap down with my claws extended and section the head of one of the guards like a grapefruit. The other guard turns around, sees me, yells and levels his weapon at me. Before he can fire I extend a blade from my right gauntlet and pin him to the side of the armored vehicle like a bug. The third guard was farther away and sees me standing over their bodies in the shadows with my claws dripping blood. He screamed and ran away towards the command center. I realize my cover has been blown as the alarms sound and I dash out from the hiding place and get ready to face whatever is coming. As soon as I come out I am blinded by bright spotlights. As soon as my eyes adjust I can see I'm facing the entire garrison with their weapons drawn and trained on me. Standing in front of the troops is the resident HOLY officer with a smug look on his face.

"What do you think you're doing here?" he says.

"I'm here to rescue the innocent people you're using for hard labor in this shithole." He laughs coldly and says "I don't see why they matter. They are simply animals that we are using to rebuild the glory of the city."

"If that's what you really think then you're the animal here! I cant wait to stick my warblades into your skull." I say angrily

"Is that so? You really don't think you can get past me, do you?" he says arrogantly. "I tell you what, If you beat me, all of the inners can leave. If you lose, you die. Simple enough, right?"

"Sounds good to me." I say as I get into a fighting stance.

"Just so you know, I have never lost to a native alter user. I think you're number thirty."

"I feel so privileged." I say as I roll my eyes.

"You don't stand a chance against my alter. It makes me invincible."

"Ugh, I've heard that before, spare me the drama and lets get started." I say impatiently.

"Alright here it goes."

I see his body tense up as he begins to concentrate and gather his power. The ground around him begins to break apart and dissolve. The mist swirls around him and obscures him for a moment. When the mist clears he has changed dramatically. The most obvious change is that all of his skin has changed into a metallic alloy and it also appears that his muscle mass has increased significantly.

"HAHAHA! This is my alter power. I call it Iron Curtain. In case you haven't figured out what it does, it coats my body in a unbreakable metal alloy and increases my strength tenfold. While I am like this no one can even scratch me. I am INVINCIBLE!"

"Oh? Really? Well, we'll see just how invincible you are asshole!" I say as I launch myself at him. I extend the heavy claws between my knuckles and take a punch right at his heart. He didn't even move as my claws glanced off of his metal skin. I manage to leap back out of the way as he takes a swipe at me. He looks at me and says "Ha! Is that it? That almost tickled. Now it's my turn."

He raised his fists above his head and they began to glow a orange color. "SEISMIC SLAM!" he yells and smashes his fists into the ground and creates a fissure in the ground that travels toward me spraying sharp shards of rock at me. A split second before the attack hits I extend double scythe blades on each side of my fist and yell "BANSHEE BLADE!" the shockwave of wailing noise streaks toward the fissure and it stops or deflects most of the shards but several get through and catch me in my chest an upper arms.

"Aaauuugh!" I yell as I hit the ground, bleeding from the cuts and pierce wounds on my body. "Wow, That hurt a lot."

"Nice try, native. Though you are the only one who has been able to deflect even a little of my seismic slam attack. I can withstand anything you throw at me, my armor makes me invincible, and you can't dodge me forever."

I stand there looking at him, trying to think of a way to get around his armor. I am drawing a complete blank. I stare at his face and see the eyes of a killer. I will not get any mercy from this guy at all. Everything I hit him with gets deflected and his attacks cause a lot of destruction and are hard to dodge. The only advantage I have over him is my speed and agility but that doesn't matter since I can't hurt him. I'm going to try and hit different areas on his armor to see if I can find or make a weak spot.

"Alright anvil-head, try this one!" I yell as I leap into the air. As soon as I hit the ground near him I dash off in another direction and continue to leap and jump around him, evading his punches and swipes. Once I get behind him I yell "STACCATO STRIKE!" and unleash a hailstorm of razor sharp blows on the back of his head, each one making the sound of clanging metal as it hit. Taking advantage of my moment of motionlessness, the HOLY officer reaches behind him and grabs me by my coat. He yanks me over his head and throws me a good twenty feet into a wall where the impact embeds me into the wall.

"I have to say, that attack actually made me dizzy. You've got real potential. You should have signed up with HOLY instead of fighting against us. Oh well. I think it's time I killed you." I pull myself out of the crater and try to stay standing. I'm breathing heavily and bleeding from numerous cuts on my body. I stare at the cruel metal monster in front of me with as much hatred as I can muster. He is staring at me like some kind of bug that is annoying him. I want to gouge those stupid eyes right out of his head. Wait a minute... his eyes! I look closely at his eyes and I realize that unlike the rest of his body they aren't armored!

"Heh, I don't know why I didn't see it before."

"See what? What are you talking about?"

"I know how to beat you now." I say triumphantly.

"Really. I guess I hit you too hard, your delusional." he says arrogantly.

"You're the delusional one!" I yell as I sprint right at him.

"You idiot! I'll finish you with my most powerful attack!" he shouts.

As I race towards him I see his fists begin to glow a bright green. He screams "I hope you like my NEUTRON PILEDRIVER!" he begins to pull his arm back to strike. But I'm too fast for him and before he can react I am right in his face. I catch him off guard and I extend the claws from the tips of my fingers and they start to glow with a black energy. I yell "DEMON'S CLAW!" and swipe my dark energy charged claws at his eyes. I feel my claws hit their target and sink into the softness of his eyes. I am rewarded by a loud scream of absolute agony coming from the HOLY officer as the dark energy from my claws amplify his pain tenfold. As I withdraw my claws and leap away from him I can feel him lose concentration as his alter dissolves off of his body. After that he falls heavily to the ground with a loud groan.

"How...how did you...do that?" he whispers hoarsely.

"Easy, dummy. I just looked at your eyes. They were the only thing unprotected on your body. So I made sure to make those my main target."

"But how could someone like you beat me?"

"Well, your first mistake was to believe you were invincible. That made you arrogant and caused you to overlook the one flaw in your armor and that one flaw led to you being defeated." I say in a tone like I'm speaking to a child. "You're second mistake...was challenging me." I say with a smirk.

I turn away from him and look at the soldiers who are staring at the whole scene in horror and disbelief. I can see the sweat on their skin and hear them fidgeting nervously with their weapons. I smile good-naturedly at them and say "Well, ummm, are you guys gonna let all of those people go, or do I have to say _please_?" To emphasize my point I extend my finger claws and make sure they glint menacingly in the moonlight. It takes a second for it to register but once it does the soldiers scramble and trip over themselves to release the inners as quickly as possible. I have an idea and I grab one guy and tell him "You know, it would be really nice of you if you guys gave all of those inners a ride to the nearest village in one of those giant armored things. Don't you think so?" as I scratch two of my claws together, making a loud grating noise. The soldier looks really freaked and stammers "Y-y-yes s-sir."

"Excellent!" I say "Make sure to tell everyone else, and remember I'll be watching you guys." I pat him on the back and send him on his way.With that I walk out of the complex and meet up with Kimishima outside the complex. When I meet up with him he says "Fine work as usual"

"Yeah...right." I say, sounding incredibly tired. "Look, before you drive me back, can you follow them to make sure they follow through? I really need to rest. Wake me up if there's a problem."

"Sure, no problem." he replies.

The last thoughts I have before I fall asleep are of Megumi and a nice meal when I get home.

END CHAPTER 1


	3. Alter Ego Chapter 2: The Last Straw

**Alter Ego Chapter 2**

As I sleep I begin to dream. It always begins the same way. I am about eight years old playing outside the house I grew up in. I hear someone call my name and I turn around. My mother and father are standing at the front door smiling at me. I can't quite remember what their faces look like though. As I am running toward them explosions rock the ground and fire shoots up into the sky from various spots in the town. I hear the sounds of motorcycle and buggy engines whining in the background along with the screams of the people in the village. I look back to where my parents and my house should be but all I see is flaming rubble. I'm too shocked to cry as I stare at where everything familiar used to be. As I'm standing there, the flames begin to twist and change into strange and unnatural shapes. The flames part almost like a curtain and I see someone inside of them. It's a man with a tattoo that looks like a targeting cross inside of a triangle on his left shoulder and a jagged scar across his face. Horns are sprouting from his head and his arms are encased in scaly armor that is clawed like a dragon's talons. He looks at me, smirks, and turns to walk away as the flames close up behind him. I fall to the ground in fear and anger, wanting to do something, anything, get rid of these people.

Then I notice shapes around me. They are very rough looking people holding various weapons, they are looking at me like I'm just another victim to them. As they draw closer I keep thinking "I don't want to die, I want to avenge the deaths of my parents and all of these other good people." over and over again. I feel my anger and conviction growing and all of a sudden I feel something click in my mind and I feel an indescribable power flow into me. Next thing I know I am standing among the dead bodies of the bandits, staring in horror at the blood drenched claws that are where my hands used to be.

"NOOOO!"

I sit up violently in bed, drenched in sweat, and breathing heavily. I look around and realize that I'm back home in my bed. I put my face in my hands and try to calm down. "I guess everything turned out okay." I think to myself. The door opens quickly and I hear Megumi say "Are you alright? I heard you screaming from downstairs."

I look up at her with a weak smile and say "Yeah, I'm fine. Just another nightmare."

She walks over to the bed and sits down next to me. She puts her arms around me to try and comfort me and says "Everything is going to be fine, you'll find him eventually."

"I don't know, it's been a couple years since I last heard anything about this guy. I wonder if he's even sill alive."

"Worry about that when the time comes. Now come on, I've got breakfast made and I'm willing to bet you're hungry."she says with a smile.

It is then that I realize that I am absolutely starving. I crack a huge smile and jump out of bed and bolt towards the kitchen with Megumi close behind.

Somewhere in HOLY HQ

HOLY commander Martin Zigmar is sitting behind his desk with a very serious look on his face as Scherise gives the investigation report on the incident at the Inner labor camp.

"There are three confirmed fatalities consisting of two HOLD soldiers and class B HOLY officer Kobashi Shinichiro and twenty five assorted injuries among the other soldiers. Large scale damage was dealt to the complex due to the fight between the native Alter and officer Kobashi. This resulted in the loss of all of the captured inners."

"So Kobashi was beaten. Do we know who killed him?"

"Yes sir. The soldiers stationed at the compound described the native alter as having a body synchronizing type of alter which gave him incredible speed and agility. He also seems to be able to grow various bladed weapons from the armor on his arms for close quarters combat."

"Hmmmm. This one could become a problem. I want you to tell Elian to get on this right away. I want as much information on this native alter as he can get as quickly as possible."

Scherise salutes and says "Yes sir." She then turns around and leaves.

Martin Zigmar then sits back in his chair and looks out the window past the city wall and thinks "We should keep an eye on this one or he could get out of control."

The a few days later back at Rob & Megumi's house

"HEY WAKE UP!"

"HOLY CRAP!" I yell as I fall out of bed headfirst and bash my head on the floor. As I come to my senses I hear laughter and know immediately who it is. "God Dammit Megumi! Why do you always do that to me!"

Still giggling she says "Because it's really funny that's why. And judging by that energetic response I think you're back to normal after that job last week."

"Yeah I guess so, now get out now!" I say as I'm about to throw my drinking cup at the door. A few minutes later I come downstairs and sit down with Megumi to eat.

"So, do you have any good jobs lined up?" Megumi asks.

"Umm, yeah." I say, still a little sleepy. " I got a job as a bodyguard for some merchant guy who's having problems with some of his competitors. He's been getting death threats and there has been some minor acts terrorism at some of his facilities. The guy is paying five hundred a day plus expenses. That's pretty good, don't you think?"

"Yeah. Depending on how long this goes for we could make a pretty good amount of cash from this job."

I look at the food in front of me dejectedly and say "I don't know, this job seems like it'll be kind of boring. I probably won't even have any good fights on this one."

"That may be so, but you probably won't get hurt that bad on this one, especially after last week. You need to fill in the gaps with a couple easy jobs and give yourself time to recover." Megumi says sounding a little concerned.

"You really don't need to worry about me, I feel fine." I say reassuringly.

When I'm done with my food I get up and say "Alright I gotta go. I have to be at my client's place soon or he'll give the job to someone else."

She smiles and says "Alright, see you later Rob."

I smile back and say "I'll be back soon, you can count on it Megumi."

Several days later

Yup, I was right; this is BORING. I think to myself as I stand off to the side of my client in yet another business meeting listening to him drone on and on about his supply routes. Sure the money's good, but not ONE THING has happened since I started here and I'm bored out of my skull. He still keeps getting death threats every now and then but not one has led to anything. At this point I'm hoping someone would try and kill this guy, if only to help relieve my boredom.

The meeting draws to a close almost an hour later and as everyone is getting ready to leave an explosion rocks the building. I run to the window and look out to see clouds of smoke coming from the far end of the complex. However before I can do anything the door to the office gets busted in and a group of three muscular guys with machine guns rush in.

"EVERYONE PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD!" says the lead thug and the other two back him up by pointing their guns at various people in the room. The businessmen in the room immediately put their hands on their heads and are to scared to move or they are trying to figure out how much it will cost to bribe their way out of this situation. I quickly duck behind a nearby desk and I'm lucky that none of them saw me.

I hear one of the thugs say "We're here to kill Domyoji Takeda and take over his company for our boss." I hear one of the thugs cock their weapon. "Now which one of you is he. If no one steps up, we kill everyone!"

From my spot behind the desk I am waiting for a good opportunity to strike. It's way too small in here to use my alter so I'll have to try something else. I open one of the pouches on my trenchcoat and take out a few of my throwing knives. I look around the side of the desk and see that they are almost at my client, who is shaking and sweating much more than any of the other people in the room. Before the punks can get any closer I make my move. I leap out from behind the desk and let my knives fly. I hit one thug right in the neck and he drops instantly, wheezing and trying to breathe. I hit another in the stomach and he staggers for a second before he too drops to the floor. I aim carefully at the last thug and throw the knife. It hits him in his free hand and nails it to the wall behind him. He drops his gun and clutches his hand and tries to pull it off the wall. Before he can do anything I run up and press my combat knife against his throat. I apply a little pressure and say "I want you to tell me how many more of you guys there are in the complex." He winces in pain and reluctantly tells me "Five...five others."

"Good." I say. "Next question; Who do you work for?"

"I'll never tell youaaaauuugh...!" he says as I apply pressure to his hand injury.

"How about now?" I say threateningly.

"No, I can't tell you. He'll kill me!" he is starting to panic now.

"And what makes you think I..." I trail off as I catch a glimpse of something that looks like a tattoo, partially hidden by his shirt sleeve on his upper arm. I cut off the sleeve to see what it is. My blood begins to run cold as I see the design of the tattoo. It's the same tattoo that I see on the arm of the alter user in my nightmares, the one who killed my parents.

I can feel rage building up in me the longer I stare at the tattoo. I feel the familiar surge of power as things around me begin to de-construct into alter mist and swirl around me as my alter manifests itself.

The thug and the businessmen stare at me in shock and fear as my transformation finishes. The thug manages to stammer "Y-y-you're an a-alter user t-t-too?"

"What do you mean too!" I say loudly as my eyes shine with black energy. My voice has an echo to it and it sounds like I've been possessed by a demon from hell. "Who is your boss! Where is he!" He doesn't answer right away so I extend a claw from my index finger and stick it into his shoulder violently. "WHO IS HE!" I scream at him as I twist my claw.

He screams and says frantically "I don't know his real name. Only the higher ups in the gang know that. Everyone else knows him by his alter name, Spitfire."

I smile and say "Thank you." I withdraw my claw from his shoulder and leave him to dangle there from his hand which is still stuck on the wall.

I turn to my client and his business partners and I say "You guys stay here. I'll take care of the rest of the people in the complex." They just stand there, too shocked to say anything as I walk out the door.

I hunted down all the remaining gang members in the facility and got as much information as I could from them, which wasn't much. These guys were very low on the totem pole in the gang. However the last guy I caught gave me a bit more info than the other ones. He said that some guy from the city hired two squads from the gang for two separate hits. One was this job and another was to take care of some guy who lived in the wasteland who had been giving him problems. I thought this was a little odd but didn't think anything about it. I couldn't learn anything about the gang's whereabouts since they apparently move their base of operations very frequently.

Once I was done I returned to my client to receive my pay since he won't have to worry about these guys anymore. I got my pay, which totaled to a very impressive lump of cash, and left to go home to rest and see Megumi.

A little while later

As I drove closer to my house I noticed smoke coming from the same direction. I felt a sense of dread slowly creep over me as I remembered that one of those gang thugs said there was another squad out to take care of _some guy in the wasteland_. They must have been after me! Then I have a horrible thought, "Oh my god, Megumi! What if she was there when it happened." Really starting to panic, I slam the gas pedal to the floor and race home as fast as the buggy could go. My worst fears are realized as my house comes into view. The ruins that used to be where our house was are still smoking heavily. The symbol of that gang are spray painted all over the place. And worst of all I can't find Megumi anywhere. I run around searching all over the area for her.

"Megumi! Megumi! Where are you! Are you here!" I yell, getting more frantic and scared by the second. Then I hear something moving in some nearby rubble and then I hear someone groaning. I rush over there and I am somewhat relieved to see that it's Megumi and she's still alive but she is unconscious. She is partially buried under some rubble and she looks pretty beat up. I rush over to her and kneel next to her. I clear the rubble off of her and shake her gently to try and wake her up. "Megumi, are you alright? Please wake up!" I say desperately. She moans and opens her eyes.

"Are you okay?" I ask, sounding incredibly relieved.

"I'm sorry." she says "They just came out of nowhere and started blowing things up. I tried to run away and hide but I got hit by some debris."

"Hey relax, there's nothing to be sorry about. I should be the sorry one, I can't believe I wasn't here to protect you. I'm just so happy you're alright."

"It's okay, I'm so glad you're back Rob..." she says with a smile as she passes out.

"Wait, no, Megumi wake up!" I say loudly. "Shit! Hold on, I'll get you to a doctor!"

I run to the buggy with Megumi in my arms and gently lay her in the back seat. I jump in the drivers seat and peel out to get to a doctors office in sector 2 while avoiding any major bumps along the way.

A few hours later

I'm sitting in the doctors office with my head in my hands, waiting for the someone to come out and give me a verdict on how Megumi is doing. I just keep thinking over and over; I should have been there, I should have protected her like I promised. I stand up quickly, yell "DAMMIT", and punch the wall, leaving a hole in the wall. I turn around to see the doctor staring at me with a slightly scared look on his face.

"Uhmm, sorry about that." I say, slightly embarrassed. I sit down and say "So, how is she?"

The doctor composes himself and gives me the report. "Well sir, she has broken bones in her legs, a mild concussion, and many cuts and bruises. To be perfectly honest, judging by what you said happened, I'm surprised that she didn't get any more serious injuries."

"Really." I say lost in thought. "Could you keep an eye on her for a little while? There's something I need to take care of. Don't worry, I'll pay for her stay here when I get back."

"Sure, no problem. I'll take good care of her." he says reassuringly.

"You'd better, because if anything happens to her I will kill you." I say as nicely as I can.

The doctor just stares at me looking very frightened, as I walk out the door.

As I walk to my buggy I realize that in order to make sure Megumi is protected and to get some concrete info on that gang that attacked us, I'm going to have to do something that I would never even consider doing under normal circumstances. I'm going to the city to join up with HOLY.

END CHAPTER 2

Hope you like it. Next chapter will be up eventually.


	4. Alter Ego Chapter 3: The Interview

Alter Ego Chapter 3

As I drive closer to the city the awful feeling in my stomach just keeps growing. What I'm about to do is completely against everything I believe in. I'm going to join the dickheads that have made things so awful for those of us in the wasteland. But I have realized that I have to join HOLY if I want to be able to keep Megumi safe. I'll also have access to the huge information gathering abilities of HOLD and HOLY so I stand a better chance of finding the gang that attacked us. Not to mention that I'll be able to strengthen my abilities there. Despite all the positive aspects that I can think of, I still _HATE_ the fact that I'm doing this. I know something is very wrong with the whole situation but I can't put my finger on it.

Oh well. I came all this way and I'm not gonna turn back now. I can see the city wall getting closer and closer on the horizon as I speed along in my buggy. I pull my buggy up to a section of the city wall that is close to the ocean and get out. I don't have an ID or even a fake ID so I'm going to have to sneak into the city. As soon as I'm out of my car I stand in front of the wall and get ready to go. I cross my arms in front of me and tense my muscles in concentration. I notice my alter forms quicker than it usually does for some reason. As soon as it is done, I flex my leg muscles and jump as high as I can up the side of the wall and when I reach maximum height I sink my claws into the wall and begin to climb up. It takes a while since the friggin' wall is so high (elitist city pricks). Eventually I make the top and stand on the edge and look into the city.

"Wow, This place is unbelievable." I say to myself as I stare at the shining city skyline in disbelief. After staring at the scenery for a second I take a deep breath and step over the edge and fall rapidly towards the ground. To slow my descent I dig my claws into the wall when I get about half way down. Once I slow down enough I kick off from the wall and land on the ground. "Hmph, that wasn't so tough." I say to myself as I hit the ground. All of a sudden I hear a noise that sounds like a whole lot of guns being cocked and I look up to see a ridiculous amount of soldiers surrounding me. "Shit." I mutter under my breath. It looks like they knew I was coming and had set up an ambush for me. I reflexively extend my claws and slowly back up until I hit the wall. I know I'm in trouble, even I can't evade that many bullets. I just wonder why they're waiting to shoot me. I see another armored vehicle roll up behind the ranks of soldiers and slowly pull to a stop. As I look at the vehicle, a hatch on top of it opens and I see someone get out and stand on top. With my alter enhanced eyesight I can see that he is wearing a HOLY uniform, tall and about my height, he has green hair, and red eyes and has the hardest, most emotionless looking face I have ever seen. I can tell that this guy is one seriously tough bastard. I see him get handed a microphone by someone in the vehicle and he raises it to his face to talk. "Attention native alter user, you are under arrest for illegally entering the city and suspicion of murdering class B HOLY officer Kobashi Shinichiro and two HOLD soldiers. You will be detained and, after an investigation, judged accordingly. Any resistance will be met with deadly force."

I just stare at him blankly for a few seconds and say "Really, now come on mister serious. I didn't come here to start a fight with you guys."

He looks at me with the same emotionless face and says "Is that so, native alter. Then why are you here."

"Well, since you seem like the resident HOLY bigwig, I'll direct this to you." I take a breath and say "I came here to join up with HOLY."

As I said that I heard a slight intake of breath from the surrounding soldiers and a slight rattling of weapons. It seems they didn't quite know how to respond to that. Even Green-Hair guy paused and I could see his brow furrow ever so slightly as he thought about what was the best way to respond to what I said. After a couple seconds that seemed like an eternity I hear the HOLY officer speaks up. "If that is indeed the truth then you will surrender yourself and come with us under my direct supervision."

He seems very confident of himself; I think to myself. I think about what he said for a minute and say "Okay, you got it pal." I say as I let my alter dissolve off of my body. And start walking towards the armored vehicle with a whole lot of heavily armed soldiers and an obviously powerful HOLY alter user giving me their undivided attention. When I get to the armored vehicle a door on the side slides open and I climb in. When I'm inside I see that there are several soldiers pointing their guns at me and two more people in HOLY uniforms. One is a rather cute girl with bluish purple hair and a barrette in her hair, the other is a short kid that doesn't look like he could be any older than ten or twelve years old. All of them are staring at me waiting for me to make a suspicious move. Suddenly one of the soldiers jabs me in the back with his rifle and says "Sit." I look behind me and say "Alright, Alright. No need to be so pushy. Just 'cause you got that snappy uniform doesn't mean you can be a dick." I sit down and hear a hatch open up behind me. I look over and see the HOLY officer that I was talking to outside. He looks at me and says "I suggest that you don't make any stupid moves while here. There are three alter users on this vehicle including myself and you won't stand a chance against us." I could tell that this guy was not being arrogant, he was simply stating a fact. I knew that this guy in particular was not someone I wanted to fuck with right now. And I was willing to bet that the other two officers here were no pushovers either. That was probably why they hadn't bothered to search me for any weapons. "Hey, no problems here pal" I say as I put my arms behind my head and lay back in my seat. "Look, I'm gonna take a nap for a while, wake me up when we get to where we are going." I say to the green haired officer. I smirk slightly as I see the slightly offended looks the other officers have on their faces as I fall asleep with two soldiers pointing their machine guns at my head.

Several Hours Later

"Hey, wake up you!" I hear someone say as I get jabbed in the side by a gun barrel. I jerk awake and groggily mumble "Ow, that hurt, you dick." It takes me a couple seconds to remember where I am as I wipe the line of drool from the corner of my mouth. "We've almost arrived at HOLY Headquarters. You might want to be awake for this." the cute girl HOLY officer says. I can see the guy with the green hair in the corner of my eye, still staring at me suspiciously. Yeesh, what a hard ass. I think to myself. When we arrive at the HOLD building I am immediately escorted by the green haired guy and several soldiers to a holding cell and pushed inside. The green haired Holy officer says "I will be back for you when the commander is ready to speak with you. Don't try anything stupid, this whole building is full of HOLY officers and soldiers. They will not hesitate to kill you if you escape."

"Hey, Listen pal." I say getting kind of pissed. "I came with you guys voluntarily. I could leave here any time I want and you couldn't stop me. I'm here only because I feel like it."

The HOLY officer looks over his shoulder at me kind of like he's saying "Yeah, right." before the cell door closes behind him. As soon as the door closes I stick my tongue out at him and give him the finger even though he can't see it. I sigh and move over to the little bed by the wall and lay down to take a nap.

Once I'm asleep I start to dream. But it isn't the usual nightmares and dreams. I'm in what looks to be a long tunnel that looks like it's made of alter mist. I look down the tunnel and see something farther down the tunnel. It looks very small in the distance and I can't quite make out what it is. It does seem to look like a person though. I begin to walk towards it and as I get closer I can make out more details. At first it looks like some kind of alter. It looks humanoid and is covered in black armor, one arm is covered in black armor while the other is white, and black flames seem to be flowing from the arms and the top of the head like hair. But as I get closer the image changes. It begins to look like me in my alter enhanced form, but it looks different than normal. My armor is more extensive and looks even deadlier than it does now. Somehow I know this is what I am supposed to be and I feel compelled to reach out and touch the image in front of me. As I raise my hand to touch it the image imitates me like a mirror. I move my hand closer and so does it. I am about to grab it's hand when I am woken up.

"Wake up native alter, the commander will see you now." I hear someone say in a dead serious voice. Without even opening my eyes I know it's that green haired HOLY officer. "Alright I'm coming, I'm coming." I say. "What a rude asshole" I think as I follow him down the hallway. We get into an elevator and ride it high up into the building. When it stops we get off on a floor that looks to be close to the top of the building. We walk through what appears to be a lounge area and the luxury of this place is astounding. It has a great view of the city from the windows and there are couches, flatscreen TVs on the walls, tables to eat at, and a full cafeteria. The looks I'm getting from the various personnel, in their nice uniforms, as I walk by in my dirty camouflage trenchcoat are really starting to annoy me and I give them dirty looks right back.

We eventually come to a door and the guy stops in front of it and presses a button next to the door and spoke into a panel next to the door. "Sir, I have the native alter that wanted to speak with you." after a second, the door opens and we enter the room. Just by the size of the office I can tell this guy is important. I am led over to stand in front of a desk with a grown man in a HOLY uniform with long brown hair and a angled face that looks like it's seen a lot of things that most people will never see. He is looking at me with his hands folded in front of him an interested look on his face as I stand there before him. After a few seconds of him staring at me he says, "Hello, My name is Commander Martin Jigmar, leader of HOLY. I understand that you are interested in joining our organization. Is that correct, Mister..." (he looks at a small file in front of him) "...Kelly?" After a second I answer, "You got that right, buddy." I see the green haired guy raises his eyebrow at me. The commander smiles slightly and resumes speaking. "Well I hope you realize what kind of situation you put me in. My sources have told me that you are the one responsible for the deaths of several of my people, and now you come here to tell me that you want to join us." I really start to feel very uncomfortable at this point. "So, I ask you, why should I trust you enough to let you join our organization?" There is a long pause as I think about how to answer. "Well, as I see it, if you let me join you you'll be getting a replacement for the guys you lost that is better by leaps and bounds." After thinking for a few seconds I add, "And I also have an agenda of my own to complete. I have someone I need to protect and there is someone else that I need to find to get even with. I think joining HOLY will help me accomplish those goals."

The commander looks at me for a few seconds and says "Everyone here has a reason for joining HOLY. These reasons are what motivate us in our lives. Your obvious dedication to your cause leads me to believe that you will not try to betray us." He holds his hand out towards me. "Welcome to HOLY." I stand there for a second, shocked that he would actually recruit me, and then shake his hand to seal the deal.

The Next Day

A small dust cloud flies up as I pull my buggy to a stop in front of the doctors office where I left Megumi. I get out and walk to the door and go inside. "Hey Doc, I'm back!" I yell.

The doctor walks out from the back and says, "Hello, welcome back my friend."

"How is Megumi?"

"She regained consciousness early this morning. You can go in and talk to her if you want, but she might be a little out of it because of the painkillers I gave her."

"Thanks a lot Doc." I say as I walk into the back office. I see Megumi laying back on the bed, awake but looking pretty sleepy. She waves at me and says "Hey Rob, where have you been?" I walk up to the bed, sit down next to her, and hold her hand gently. "I've been out taking care of some things for us." I say to her, not looking her in the eye. "Really? What kinds of things?" I pause, reluctant to tell her what I've done. "What's wrong Rob? What happened?" she says, sounding concerned. I take a deep breath and begin to tell her. "Well, first of all, we have a new place to live." She gasps in excitement and says "Really! Where!" After a brief pause I say "The City." Her face loses some of it's excitement and she starts to look at me suspiciously. "I know you got paid well for that last job but you couldn't get even a small place in the city for that much. How did you manage to pull that off?" I turn away before I explain it to her. "I've joined HOLY." She starts laughing and says "Come on, quit joking around. Tell me the truth, you would never join HOLY." I dig into the pocket of my coat and turn around. "I am telling you the truth. See?" I say as I hold up my brand new, shiny HOLY badge for her to see. There is a long, uncomfortable silence as her gaze shifts between my dead serious face and the badge in my hand. The silence ends when she quietly says "Why did you do that?" I reply, "Because I can't keep my promise to protect you out here. I can't be here with you all of the time. You'll be much safer in the city. Not to mention that while I'm part of HOLY I'll be able to use their facilities to get information on the gang that attacked you, and find that alter user that we've been looking for. I was able to pull some strings and I was able to get you a job in the intelligence and logistics division of HOLD so we can have access to their files on native alter users and monitor troop deployments. And besides, if something happens that I don't like, we can always leave, whether they like it or not." There is even more silence until Megumi says "Well, if you think it's for the best, I'm okay with it." I smile at her, feeling relieved. "I'm so happy that you understand. As soon as you're able to get out of bed we'll go to the city. You won't be sorry about this Megumi." Little did she know that I already was sorry about this.

END CHAPTER 3

TO BE CONTINUED...


	5. Alter Ego Chapter 4: The Welcome Party

Alter Ego Chapter 4

_A couple days after the end of the last chapter, At HOLY Headquarters._

I finish fastening the last button on my HOLY uniform and walk out of the bedroom to show Megumi. "So how do I look?" I say in a slightly depressed voice. She steps back and looks at me up and down while holding her chin like she is looking at a picture or something. "Well, I'm not a big fan of the HOLY uniform, but you look pretty good in it."

"Meh, I hate it. I can't wear my trenchcoat. I keep all my gear and knives in there. At least I can still wear my helix chain necklace."

"Well, we can probably have it modified later on, right?"

"Yeah...I guess so."

"Your welcome party should be fun, I hear that these guys can really throw a party." Megumi tries to change the subject, "You'll be able to meet some of your new colleagues tonight."

I move over to the mirror nearby and start to nervously pick at the HOLY badge on my uniform. "I severely doubt I'll have fun, Megumi."

"Come on," she says, sounding exasperated. "You could at least TRY to make the best of this and have a good time."

"Yeah, you might be right about that. I might as well try to use this situation as best I can. It's very likely that we'll be here for a while." I turn around to look at her and say, "Who knows, I might actually make some friends here."

_A few hours later at Rob's welcome party._

'Wow, Megumi was right. These guys really do know how to throw a party.' I think as I walk around among all the different HOLD and HOLY staff members that are at my party. I feel kind of uncomfortable in the new suit I'm wearing. Me and Megumi had gone shopping in the city earlier in the day for something to wear to the party. She helped me pick out a forest-green suit which I actually think looks pretty good, and she got a very attractive blue dress. We are both walking around the party eating the huge spread of food they have put out (it sure beats the relief supplies in the lost ground, that's for sure!), and meeting my new coworkers.

New people keep coming up to me, introducing themselves, and congratulating me on joining HOLY. I learned the names of several people who I had seen around the building over the last few days. Ryuho was the name of the green haired guy who I first met when I tried to sneak into the city, he is apparently one of the most powerful guys in HOLY from what everyone says. The girl with the bluish-purple hair and barrette who was with him that day is named Scherrice. And the small boy who I also met that day is named Elian and remarkably he is highly involved in the intelligence division of HOLY. There were many others besides them. There were a few people who I actually liked and got along with okay. There was a guy named Konton who seemed to be a huge fan of sword fighting and bladed weapons. We discussed our favorite types of weapons and combat styles. Another guy was a kind of fat guy who REALLY seemed to like watermelons named Urizane who was extremely good natured and jolly as long as you didn't go near his prized watermelons. One person I found to be very interesting was a guy with spiky pink hair name Straight Cougar. This guy is definitely very intelligent and very eccentric. He is also apparently one of the more powerful guys in HOLY. When he talked he tended to ramble on about different subjects at very high speeds and he also seemed to get peoples names wrong a lot.

There were so many people there it got really hard to remember everyone's name. Almost everyone was really nice to me and Megumi. Ryuho was acting like a gruff asshole all night, but from what I gathered from all the other people there, he is always like that. But overall we had a great time. The food and music were great and there was constant entertainment like karaoke and when the DARS squad got up on stage and started dancing to different songs. When the party began to wind down me and Megumi excused ourselves and went back to our room. When we got back in the room we began to get ready to go to sleep and talk about the party. "So what did you think, Megumi?" I ask her. She looks at me and says "I had a lot of fun. That girl Scherice is really nice, and so are those Tokonatsu sisters. But the weird thing is they don't look at all alike, and they seemed to be really attracted to that one HOLY officer uh... what was his name? Oh well."

"Yeah, everyone seemed pretty cool." I reply. "I really want to talk to that guy Konton about some of those sword fighting techniques we were talking about earlier. But you know the DARS squad?"

"Yeah, what about them?" she asks.

"Well, I couldn't put my finger on it, but something just didn't feel right about them. I dunno, maybe it's just me." I say and shrug my shoulders.

"So what happens tomorrow?" Megumi asks me.

"Um, Tomorrow I have my skill assessment test, and after that the commander will give me my rank and fully initiate me into HOLY.

"Well then you'd better get some rest." Megumi says "You want to have all your energy for tomorrow."

"Yeah I guess your right. I'll see you tomorrow Megumi. Goodnight" I walk over and kiss her goodnight on the forehead. "Goodnight Rob." she says, "And if I don't see you before you leave tomorrow, Good luck."

"Thanks a lot." I say as I walk into my room and shut the door behind me.

_The Next Morning_

"Uhhhhhhh... God I hate mornings." I mutter to myself as I sit at a table in the cafeteria with my breakfast in front of me. 'I wonder what kind of things I'm going to have to do on this "skill test." I should definitely be careful, I have no idea what to expect.' I am so lost in thought that I don't notice someone come up behind me until he grabs my shoulder and says, "HEEEEYYYY!" Good morning! Ready for your test?" I bolt upright with my fork in my hand ready to stab whoever it is when I notice that it's Cougar who has a look of slight disbelief on his face. "Oh, it's you... sorry." I collect myself and say, "Don't you have any manners? What do you want?" Cougar looks like he got kind of confused, but he straightens himself out before he continues with what he was saying. "The Commander sent me to bring you to where your assessment test will be conducted. We'd better hurry or you'll be late" I stare at him and think 'Man this guy is WAY too energetic this early.' I think to myself before replying. "Alright, just let me finish my breakfast." I quickly gulp down the rest of my fried sausage and eggs and stand up to go. "Alright buddy, lead on. Let's get this over with."

I follow Cougar to the elevator and we get in. He hits a button for one of the deeper basement levels and the elevator starts it's decent. "So what can you tell me about this little 'test' that I'm gonna be taking?", I ask him. "I'm not allowed to tell you the details but the test is always a little different for each person that takes it. You basically have to get as far as you can through the course by using any means possible. However, ..." his tone changes to sound more serious and an odd look comes across his face as he continues. "It is not easy, you have to be very careful. There have even been some recruits that have not made it all the way through." My eyes narrow "What do you mean?", even though I'm already pretty sure of what he means. He turns to look directly at me and says, "They died."

I feel the elevator slow down and stop and the door finally opens and we walk into what appears to be some sort of control room. All the control stations are manned by people rapidly performing system checks and making preparations. And in the middle of it all, waiting for me, is the commander. He turns to me and says, "Welcome Rob." I salute and say "Thank you sir." He smiles and says "At ease." and continues, "The test you are about to take is a practical application of your skills with and without your alter. The test is to take place _here_." He turns to the observation window and the metal shutters begin to raise to reveal an immense maze-like obstacle course. "The objective is very simple, try to get to the end of the course using any means possible." He looks directly at me and says, "This will determine what you specialize in and how we will apply your skills in the future. But more importantly, it will determine if you are truly suited to be a member of HOLY." I look right back at him with a smirk on my face and say, "This isn't gonna be a problem. When do I start?" The commander points to a door on the left side of the room. "That elevator will take you to the starting point. When you hear the buzzer, begin." I walk over and enter the elevator. Before the door closes I say, "See you at the finish line."

As soon as the door closes Zigmar turns to Cougar, "What do you think of this one Cougar? Do you think he will need to be refined?" As Cougar looks out the window at the obstacle course he says thoughtfully, "Well, he looks like he's got a lot of potential. And from what I could tell, he's very close to breaking through to the next level."

"Really..." says Zigmar in an interested tone.

"Then we might as well help him along a little bit." And with that he announces to the control room, "Set course difficulty to level 4 and prep the DARS squad for combat."

The elevator stops and the doors open. I exit the elevator and walk onto the floor of the starting area. As I stand there I begin to fidget nervously a little bit and I unsheathe my combat knife out of habit. Once my knife is in hand I begin to calm down. Unfortunately, that doesn't last long. "BZZZZZZZZZ!" The buzzer goes off and I instantly take off into the obstacle course.

The first hundred yards or so are pretty uneventful with simple barriers and obstacles that would pop up and could be jumped or climbed over in a second. Rounding the next corner I come to a curiously empty stretch of corridor. "Well this looks just a little bit suspicious." I mutter to myself. "I'd better just sprint through as quickly as possible." I run as fast as I can down the corridor but before I get halfway through, both ends of the corridor seal themselves off with heavy metal doors. I immediately stop and prepare for the worst. I hear the humming of machinery coming to life behind the walls. Then panels on the walls open all down the hallway and dozens of robotic arms tipped with various types of nasty looking weapons extend out and begin looking for a target to shred. I smile to myself and mutter, "Heh, so things are finally gonna get interesting."

The closest arm takes a swipe at me. I dodge it and immediately shove my knife into one of the joints on the arm, twist it, and break the joint, rendering the arm useless. Another arm comes toward me and I manage to cut the relay cable and it slumps to the floor deactivated. A arm with a vicious set of blades swings at me and I manage to avoid it... mostly. It leaves a series of shallow cuts along my upper chest and left arm. I grunt in pain and quickly hack off the end of the arm. My fight continues in a vicious cycle of dodge, hack, slash, and stab for what seems like forever until all of the arms in the hallway are lying on the ground wrecked and ruined.

When it is all over I lean up against the wall to try and take a quick break before continuing. I am breathing heavily, my blood is pumping, and my body feels like it's on fire; I love it.

"Well, that was fun but I don't think that I'll be able to go any further without using my alter. But I should really do something about this wound first." I take my knife and cut off a couple strips of fabric from my uniform and proceed to tie them firmly around my arm and upper chest to stop the bleeding.

"Alright, it's time for me head out." I stand up, sheathe my knife, and get ready to create my alter. I clench my fists, cross my arms in front of me, and begin to concentrate. I feel that familiar power as my alter begins to form, but something feels... different somehow. I can't quite put my finger on it but it feels like there is something more that is just out of my reach. But as soon as I feel it, it's all over and I'm standing there with my alter, ready to go. 'That's never happened before, I wonder what it was.' I think to myself. "Oh well." I walk up to the heavy door at the end of the corridor, briefly examine it, extend my knuckle claws, and proceed to shred the metal like it was tissue paper so I could continue.

With the considerable enhancement from my alter, the traps I come across are no match for me and I slice them up or dodge them as soon as they appear. These automated weapons are no match against someone with even a small amount of talent. I can't believe some of my predecessors had died in this place. This was almost too easy.

The walls rush past me as I run into the next area. At first it is very dark (even though that really doesn't matter to me) but then the lights on the ceiling come on in sequence to reveal the whole area. It appears to be a big arena of some kind with a pretty high ceiling. There are several small doors spaced evenly around the perimeter of the arena and one large door at the opposite end which, I assume, I have to go through to get to the finish line. I slowly make my way across the arena, my alter enhanced senses straining to detect anything that will jump out to attack me. Suddenly I hear the grinding of gears and servos as the large door behind me slams shut and seals off the corridor I came through preventing me from escaping. At the same time two doors on the perimeter open and several people march out of them and get in battle formation around me. I'm shocked when I realize that it is a full squad from the DARS unit. "What the hell is going on you guys!" The only answer I get is all ten of them summoning their alters at the same time. From what I understand each DARS squad has specialized alters that work together as one unit. I have never actually seen one of the DARS alters before so I don't know what to expect. When the alter mist clears each member of the squad has this strange looking segmented arm unfold and float in front of them except for the one who, I assume, is the squad leader. He has a large orb shaped, mechanical alter with sharp teeth floating next to him. The outside of the orb is covered with what look like sockets where something can attach to.

I sigh heavily and say, "I guess this means that I have to go through you guys to get to the finish line. Right?" Once again I get no reply as their masked faces stare at me, waiting for an opportunity to attack. I extend my finger claws and get into fighting position, "Alright, if you insist." and with that I rush at the nearest soldier. But before I get there a solid blow smashes into the side of my head and knocks me off course and I tumble off course, miss my target, and hit the floor hard. Before I can pick myself up off the floor I feel something grab me by the leg swing me forcefully into the wall nearby, and then throw me halfway across the arena where I skid to a stop in a world of hurt. I get up holding my chest and wincing in pain.

"Shit, This isn't good. These guys aren't playing around, they are really trying to kill me; and I definitely felt something break when I hit the wall. They're really well coordinated I'll give them that. Plus I'm completely outnumbered. I gotta try to get a bunch of them at once." I notice that a bunch of them are grouped together and strike. I extend the double scythes from my fists and yell "BANSHEE BLADE!" For a second I think I have them. But to my horror, the arms from the other squad members swoop in, grab them, and lift them out of the way a split second before the shockwave would have hit them and the sound wave slams harmlessly into the wall. "Damn it! Stay still!"

The squad regroups across the arena and stand still for a second like they're trying to figure out what to do. "What's the matter did I surprise you?" Of course I get no reply from them, except the telltale glow of them powering up their alters. To my shock and disbelief their alters are moving closer together and changing. The arms transform and develop sockets at one end and all nine of them attach themselves to the large orb body. The body is supported by several of the arms while the rest are waving around in the air like snakes. The whole thing looks like some sort of nightmare octopus.

But as soon as this registers in my head it jumps high in the air and whips several of it's arms at me which stretch as they head towards me, tipped with wicked looking, razor sharp claws. I narrowly dodge and block most of the bladed arms but not all of them. One gets through and tears a chunk of flesh out of my leg. The searing pain makes me lose my concentration and another arm gets through and pierces right into my stomach. Time slows down for me for a split second and I cough up blood as I stare in shock at the bloody tentacle protruding from my gut. Then things go back to normal as the tentacle flings me off and into the wall with incredible force.

I slide to the floor and slump limply against the wall bleeding and broken, somehow still barely alive. I am in immense pain as I bleed from the gaping wound in my stomach, and countless other cuts. I can see the DARS alter through my blurring vision, readying a finishing blow at my head. "So this is how I'm going to die. Oh well, I guess I wasn't strong enough." The last thing I see before my eyelids close is a tentacle streaking towards me to smash my head open against the wall.

TO BE CONTINUED...

END CHAPTER 4

That's one hell of a cliffhanger, huh. Next chapter will be up soon.


	6. Alter Ego Chapter 5: The Next Level

Alter Ego Chapter 5

When we last left me I was laying against the wall of the underground HOLY training course with a hole in my gut after getting the shit beat out of me by a DARS squad. Pretty hopeless looking right now, but do you really think I'd die that easily? (Pretty cliche, I know.)

As my eyes close I can see the bladed tentacle of the DARS alter racing towards me to smash my head open against the wall. It almost feels like I'm going into a very restful sleep as the soothing darkness envelops me. I'm thinking, 'So this is how I'm going to die; without accomplishing anything. I'll never find that fire alter user and, worst of all, I let Megumi down. I guess I just wasn't good enough...'

Suddenly I hear Megumi's voice, "What's wrong with you? You made a promise to me."

"Huh? What?"

Megumi appears in front of me and starts talking to me. "You made a promise to me you jerk."

"What are you doing here?" I ask, kind of confused.

"I guess I'm here to try and motivate you to keep you from dying, this is **your** hallucination. So shut up and let me talk."

"Oh, sorry. Go ahead."

"Thank you. You promised to stay with me and protect me. Are you going to just give up and leave me alone. You can beat these guys with no problems."

"Are you kidding. I have a gaping hole where my stomach used to be."

"That doesn't matter. You're an alter user. With your abilities, you can do the impossible. Besides If you don't beat these guys what's going to happen to me? They'll probably kick me out of the city. I have nowhere to go now; and without you protecting me who knows what will happen to me."

After she says that, our surroundings burst into flames and this creepy laughter begins echoing around us. Suddenly, the alter user that killed my parents materializes behind Megumi. He grabs her with his taloned hands and pulls her away from me. As I chase after them he is still laughing at me as he slowly disappears into the flames around us with Megumi looking back at me with an incredibly sad look on her face. A curtain of flame finally comes between us and I lose sight of them. I look around in an effort to find them growing more frantic and angry by the second. "Megumi! Where are you! Say something, I'll find you!"

When I don't hear a reply, I completely lose it. "AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGHHHH!" I scream as loud as I can and suddenly the flames disappear and I am back in the alter tunnel from my dream again, facing the mirror image of myself with the advanced alter. This time, my determination drives me to grab for the image in front of me. The second our hands meet there is a flash of dark energy that engulfs me and I feel a overwhelming amount of power surge into my body as the image in front of me fades and is absorbed into me.

This new surge of power jolts me back to reality and I wake up feeling better than ever (despite the hole in my stomach). I quickly stand up with my alter energy glowing around me like an aura. The razor sharp tentacle from the DARS alter makes contact with my alter energy and instantly stops and disintegrates a second later. The main body of the alter screams in pain and one of the squad members clutches his right arm in pain and falls to his knees. The huge surge of power emanating from me causes the members of the DARS squad to take a few steps backward, almost like they're scared of me. I concentrate and use the disintegrated matter from the tentacle to regenerate the hole in my stomach and the various other cuts on my body.

Back up in the observation deck

"Well Cougar, it seems that you were right. He was able to break through to the next level." Said Commander Zigmar. "This one has a lot of potential, we should keep an eye on him." Then Cougar looks at the Commander and says, "Shouldn't we stop the test and withdraw the DARS squad? Judging by how things are going, he might just kill all of them." The Commander smiles slightly, "No. Continue the test. Let's see what he's capable of." and turns back to the monitors to observe the fight. Behind him, Cougar also watches the fight with a slightly troubled look on his face.

Back in the Arena

Once my injuries are healed I concentrate on the new power I have and my transformation begins. Large portions of the arena around me break down into alter mist and flow quickly towards me. My alter begins to form as usual but starts growing all the way up my arms and legs in vein-like patterns and fills out and develops plates and spikes all the way up my arms and legs. Armor grows around my neck that is harder than titanium but is still incredibly flexible. Finally a headpiece with two sharp, hornlike projections above where my ears are grows around my head. When my transformation is complete I open my eyes and my pupils have turned jet black. I stare at the DARS squad and grin maniacally at them.

Their alter immediately regenerates the arm I destroyed and lashes out with all of it's free tentacles. I effortlessly dodge every single one, moving too fast for them to even come close to hitting me. After I dodge them in midair I grow jagged blades from my arms and legs and they start to crackle with black and dark blue energy. "TWILIGHT EDGE!", curved blades of black/blue energy fly from my blades and sever the tentacles in dozens of places. As the tentacle pieces hit the ground and dissolve, I land on the wall across the arena from the alter and use grappling spikes created from the feet of my armor to stand effortlessly on the wall. From my perch I taunt the DARS squad, " Come on guys. That won't work on me now. You have to do better than that." I smile dangerously, "Unfortunately, I'm not going to give you the chance." I jump down from the wall and land lightly on the ground. "Let's see how you do in the dark!" I create dozens of sharp, dense spikes on my arms. I yell "SPIKE SHOWER!" and fling them at the lights on the ceiling. They all hit their targets and, in a spectacular shower of sparks, disable all the lights in the room. "Let's see if you can find me." I say as I use my new powers to melt into the shadows and become virtually invisible. With my senses enhanced far beyond what they are in the first form of my alter I can see the DARS squad is standing back to back with their alter close by, trying to find me, I can hear their rapid breathing, and even smell the sweat dripping from them. As I stalk around them in circles I say "What's the matter, can't see me? Because I can sure see you." I laugh insanely, my voice seemingly coming from all directions at the same time, confusing them even more. "You're pretty tough together, but let's see how you do when I take you out one by one."

I grow a barbed harpoon type of blade from my right arm and fling it at the closest DARS squad member. The harpoon hits it's target and punches straight through his chest and pins him to the floor as he falls. Almost instantly one of the arms of their alter disintegrates and doesn't grow back. The remaining DARS soldiers spread out a little bit more and disengage their alters in an effort to try and find me and I see my chance to take out a couple more of them.

I creep up behind two more of them absolutely silently and grow scythe blades from my gauntlets and simultaneously slice them down the center of their bodies. Before their bodies hit the ground and before the others are able to retaliate, I am gone again. I can still see them standing around, paralyzed with fear, or indecision, or both.

"Come on! You guys can do better than this! I'm getting bored and you guys are dropping like flies! I guess you just aren't worth my time anymore." I effortlessly pick off two more DARS soldiers, hoping in vain that they would be able to put up some semblance of a fight, but I am extremely disappointed at how weak they are.

"You are all so WEAK!" I yell at them from the darkness, the disgust just dripping from my voice, "I am on a whole other level from you now. There is no reason for this to continue any longer. I'm going to finish you all right now." I reveal myself from the shadows and begin to gather my power. The remaining DARS members turn toward me and frantically scramble to regroup and attack me. I clasp my hands in front of me and focus my power. I create a curved double bladed sword from my armor in my hands and it begins to pulse with dark energy. The DARS squad sends their alters after me as a last ditch effort to stop me. Before they get to me I say "SPECTER BLADE!" and I rush straight at them. As I run past their alters I slash them to pieces and as the alters fall to the floor and dissolve, I then turn my attention to the remaining DARS squad. I run towards them with my sword still in hand. I decapitate or bisect all of them in the space of about six seconds, saving the squad leader for last. The last thing he sees is my face bathed in shadows, with my eyes glowing ever so slightly in the darkness right before my blade goes through his chest. Now that I'm finished, I reabsorb the blade back into my armor and walk away from the arena towards where the finish line is. With my new power I am able to make it there in no time.

I walk calmly into the finish point and I hear a buzzer sound, signaling that the test is over. Then I hear a voice over the intercom system, "Congratulations! You have successfully completed the assessment test. Please exit through the door behind you." I smile broadly and deactivate my alter. When my alter is gone I start walking towards the door to leave. Or, I try to, but I immediately collapse and fall flat on my face. "Ow... Well this isn't good." My whole body hurts so much that I can't even move. I just lay there drifting in and out of consciousness until I feel some people pick me up, put me onto a stretcher, and begin to rush me out of the area. That's the last thing I remember before completely blacking out into a dreamless sleep.

Five Days Later

I see a growing light as I fight my way back from unconsciousness. Slowly my vision focuses enough for me to see blurry images of a room with a lot of white in it. I can also see someone sitting next to my bed. My vision clears a little more and I see that the room I'm in appears to be a hospital room and the person sitting next to me is Megumi! She is sitting in a chair next to the bed and it looks like she is sleeping. I sit up (with a little effort) and lean over close to her.

"Megumi... Megumi... Hey get up." I say as I poke her really hard on the side of the head.

"YAAAHHH!" SMACK!

Before I realize what happened she screams and belts me across the face really hard, sending me backwards back onto the bed. "OW! What the hell did you do that for! I'm injured here!"

"Well you scared me you ass! It's like a refl..." she trails off as she realizes what just happened. She screams "You're awake!" and runs over to the bed and hugs me as hard as she can.

"I won't be for long if you don't ease up!" I say in a strangled voice. She gasps and quickly lets me go. She blushes a little bit and says, "Sorry about that. You were out cold for almost a week. I guess I got a little carried away."

"Meh, it's alright I guess." an uncomfortable silence passes and I say, "Umm... So did anything happen while I was out?"

She quickly composes herself and clears her throat before talking. "Well, um, I've heard through the grapevine around here that the people in charge have restarted some kind of "re-development" project that was started a few years ago but had to be put on hold because of money problems and constant sabotage from Inners."

"Why are they starting it again after all this time?"

"I don't know. It probably has to do with the increased funding that HOLD has received and that HOLY has increased in size since the last re-development project."

"Hasn't there been any resistance from the Inners?"

"Yeah, of course. There have been a few scattered and unorganized uprisings against HOLD units from both small human militia groups and native alters. But they don't last long, all the groups that have fought have been completely crushed and sent to labor camps or imprisoned at HOLY. There haven't been any serious attacks yet. But there is already some talk of preemptively sending fully armed HOLD divisions on patrol routes to restrict rebel activity."

"Yikes. Things are really starting to heat up. Good thing I had all that rest, I'll probably be put on active duty soon."

"Yes, you definitely will be." says a familiar deep voice from the doorway.

We look over and see the Commander standing there.

We both quickly try to compose ourselves and salute but he holds up his hand and says, "It's alright, take it easy. No need to stress yourself while your off duty."

"Thank you sir." I say and relax back onto my bed. "Um, can I help you with something?"

"I came by to congratulate you on passing the skill assessment and you have been ranked as a A class alter user. Also, you will be our new covert operations and close combat specialist. But I also came here to ask you about a more serious matter." He says as he hands me a file folder. "We captured a certain alter user a few days ago and we were following the typical procedure for dealing with alter criminals when he escaped from his cell, posed as a HOLD soldier and managed to get to the lounge area before blowing his cover and attacking me and several other HOLY members. He then took one of our personel hostage and managed to make an escape despite our best efforts." While he is talking I open up the file and instantly notice the picture of the "alter criminal" inside. 'Holy shit! It's Kazuma!' I think to myself. I manage to keep my face completely straight while the Commander keeps talking. "If you didn't know, no one has _ever_ escaped from HOLY. And I was wondering if you have ever encountered this particular alter user during your time in the Lost Ground." I quickly consider my options in this situation and since I still don't like HOLY, especially since I almost died in the test. I decide to lie. "No, I've never come across this guy before. But if he managed to escape from here he's gotta be good." I close the file and hand it back to the commander. He stares at me for a second and says "I see. Well since that incident we have had repeated problems with this particular native alter attacking our patrols and encampments. I thought I'd warn you about him before I put you on active duty since you might become a target."

"Thank you for the warning but there probably won't be a problem." I say back to him.

He looks back at me and says, "I hope you're right. Once the doctors give you a clean bill of health you will be put on active duty; this will probably be within the next day or so since you are conscious now. Enjoy the remaining time you have off." He salutes at us, we salute back, and he leaves.

"Wow, why didn't you tell me that they caught Kazuma and he managed to escape?" I ask Megumi.

"I was getting to that but the commander showed up before I could." she replies, sounding a little annoyed.

"They have no idea what a major enemy they made. Once this guy gets something in his head he does not give up. EVER. Why do you think I hate fighting the guy?"

"Well something big is happening alright. We've been getting more and more activity in the intelligence division and there have been much more troop activity lately. They are gearing up for some kind of major operation that is going down very soon."

I seem lost in thought for a second before replying. I smile slightly at her and laugh, "Heh. Well whatever it is I'd better be ready, things are going to get very interesting very soon. I can feel it."

END CHAPTER 5

TO BE CONTINUED...


	7. Alter Ego Chapter 6: Janette

Alter Ego Chapter 6

I decided to change the POV experimentally; please tell me what you think or if you have any suggestions.

I do not own s-CRY-ed or any of the characters other than Rob and Megumi.

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We come back to the story about two weeks after the last chapter...

'It took almost a week to fully recover from my experience during the skill assessment test and I've hardly had a moment's rest since then.' Rob thought to himself as he worked out, 'The operation that Megumi told me about is starting soon.'

The operation is unofficially being called, "The Great Native Alter Hunt" and everyone in HOLD has been gearing up for this operation almost obsessively.

'I'm kinda happy I joined HOLY when I did. I'd hate to face them like this.'

Officially the purpose of the operation is to locate and capture any and all native alter users we encounter that resist us in an effort to try and bring order to the Lost Ground and try to put a dent in the amount of alter related crimes. But in actuality, the real reason for the operation is to crush any resistance in the Lost Ground to clear the way for the city expansion project. Rob isn't fooled though. He's just keeping his distaste to himself mainly because if he takes part in this operation he has a chance to find the alter from his nightmares and finally get revenge and kill him.

In preparation for the upcoming operation the commander has ordered all capable troops to active duty and has had them training and preparing around the clock. For the past week he has been training in combat simulations, training with troops to teach him leadership skills, and going to endless tactical meetings; He is currently finishing his final set on the weight machine before heading to the lounge to get some food and a little rest after working out. Before something else comes up.

Although the commander is in charge of the whole operation he has entrusted most of the tactical aspects of the operation to a guy named Rufus. He is a alter user in charge of the tactical division of HOLY and he is supposedly some kind of military genius. Rob smiles slightly to himself, 'I seem to have gotten on his nerves a little in the last few days. I usually fall asleep in his tactical meetings, I guess he doesn't like that too much. Go figure.'

Through the constant flow of rumors among the staff, almost everyone knows that after Kazuma got captured, he has been causing HOLY a lot of trouble lately. He has put three lower class HOLY officers out of commission permanently and has put another officer named Asuka Tachibana in the hospital with serious injuries. He has apparently gotten the command staff in a real panic since one alter user has never caused this much of an uproar and still been able to evade capture. Almost everyone has an opinion about the whole incident. They range from a grudging respect to total outrage that someone like Kazuma was able to make complete fools out of the supposed "elite" HOLY members. Rob, however, has been hugely amused by the whole thing. He has enjoyed the fact that these arrogant pricks have been taken down a few notches and been forcibly shown that they aren't as invincible like they thought.

Rob walks out of the exercise room just as a tone echoes through the hallway over the intercom system and an announcement begins: "ATTENTION: ALL HOLY OFFICERS AND COMMAND STAFF! PLEASE REPORT TO TACTICAL ROOM NUMBER 3 FOR VITAL STRATEGIC BRIEFING AT 0100 HOURS."

Rob casually looks at his watch and sees that it is almost 12:30. "CRAP! I gotta change!" and he runs as fast as he can to his room to change into uniform before going to the meeting.

A very short time later, after a frantic run to his room and a quick change into his HOLY uniform, Rob dashes into the tactical room right before the meeting starts. The tactical room is a large circular room with rows of seats surrounding a computer equipped central area where the speaker stands. It is pretty crowded since everyone is already there. Rob manages to find a seat just as the lights darken and the commander and Rufus walk into the lighted central area and begin the meeting.

The commander walks into the center area while Rufus waits off to the side. The commander immediately begins talking once everyone has settled down. "The purpose of this meeting is to lay out our strategy for the largest military intervention into the Lost Ground that HOLD has ever conceived. While I am officially in charge of the operation, all tactical aspects of the operation will be under the supervision of Rufus until further notice. He will report directly to me and only me." Rufus smiles ever so slightly from where he is standing. "I will now allow him to fill you in on the battle plans." With that the commander steps aside and motions for Rufus to step forward. He salutes and takes the commander's place in the center of the tactical room.

"Thank you sir." With that Rufus presses a button on a small remote control he's holding and an enormous holographic map of the entire Lost Ground, showing all of the different sectors and territories, flashes into existence above him.

"The current battle plan is based on the "blitzkreig" tactic utilized by the Germans during World War II. The key for this strategy to work is speed and precision." Several people lean in and take interest, especially Cougar who seems a little less distracted than usual, as Rufus explains his battle plan.

"There will be a total of twenty HOLD platoons that will expand out from the city in a fan-like pattern like so."

He pushes a button on his remote and several arrows slowly begin to spread out from the city. "The goal for each platoon is to swiftly enter an area and rapidly suppress any and all resistance in that area. If you encounter alter users you are to capture them _alive_ if possible, especially if they are wanted. Normal human resistance is to be suppressed as quickly as possible and you are to then move on to the next territory."

With another touch of the remote each territory changes color from red to blue as the arrows enter it and then the arrows move on to the next. "Your platoon is to remain in a territory only long enough to provide cover for support staff and troops to come in behind you and solidify their hold in several fully armed garrisons spread throughout the territory. You are then to move on to the next territory and repeat the process."

He presses the remote one more time and stops the display behind him. It then changes from a map to a logistics screen. "Each platoon will be commanded by two HOLY officers with a full platoon of HOLD soldiers. Each of you will be sent a dossier telling you what squad you are assigned to and who you will be teamed up with."

Rob frowns a little at the thought of having to team up with someone. 'Damn! Whenever I've worked with someone in the past they always been almost totally inept and caused more problems than they were worth. I can only hope that they'll at least team me up with someone who is at least an upper B class officer who doesn't act like a complete ass all the time.'

"There is little room for error and due to the large amount of manpower involved in this operation, reinforcements and replacements to the advance strike units will be kept to a bare minimum to keep with the time table so be careful with the people under your command."

Rufus turns off the hologram projection so all attention is on him. "The estimated timetable for the whole operation is approximately two months and it will begin tomorrow at 0800 hours. All command personnel are to be at their designated posts at least one hour before the beginning of the operation for final personnel and equipment checks. I suggest you all prepare early and get a lot of rest tonight. I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you." And with that he steps aside and the commander takes his place in the center of the room.

"Thank you Rufus. Excellent job as usual." Zigmarl stands in the center of the room and begins to address the assembled officers. "As you know I expect nothing but the best from all of you. You and all your platoon members will be notified of their assignment by tomorrow at the latest. You will be given your mission dossiers as you leave. I wish all of you the best of luck. You are now dismissed." He salutes all of us and leaves.

As he leaves Rob picks up his dossier and heads to the lounge to read it. He grabs a good seat and begin to go through the list of personnel and materials under his command.

"Hmmmm. Let's see here..." he mutters to himself, "Two mobile command vehicles, five armored escort jeeps, a full platoon of soldiers. Wow, they're really going all out for this. Now lets see who I'll be teamed up with."

He flips a couple more pages and find what he's looking for: the profile on his soon to be partner. Her name is Janette and she is a girl in her mid to late teens, probably about eighteen or so, with blonde hair. 'She's pretty cute too. Whoever decided on the skirt length on the uniform is my hero.' It gives a very basic background on her alter and past accomplishments which make her look like a fairly competent officer. She has been a member of HOLY for about two years and has gained the rank of "A" class. Her alter is called Iris.

'Hm, I guess I'll find out more in the field.' Rob closes the dossier, lays back on the chair, and closes his eyes to do a little thinking.

'It's possible that I might run into that fire alter user during this operation.' he smiles slightly at the thought, 'Then I can finally kill him and get it over with. With any luck, after this mission me and Megumi will be able to leave HOLY.'

Unseen by Rob, Megumi has just walked into the lounge, spotted him, and has started to walk towards him.

"Hey Rob!"

"Huh?" He opens one eye to see who called his name and sees Megumi walking towards him. He smiles and waves as she comes over.

"What's up Megumi?"

"Hey, did you get your assignment yet?"

"Yeah, it's right here." He holds up the dossier for her to see. "Just got out of the mission briefing too."

"So what do you think of the whole thing?"

"Well, it's really well planned and it's also quite possible that I'll run into that alter user we've been looking for during this operation. If I do and I kill him we can leave here and find a new place to live. But on a whole, I'm not sure."

"Well what about all the alter users and regular people you're going to be arresting? You always hated that aspect of HOLD. What are you going to do with the ones who are just trying to defend themselves?"

Rob frowns and looks at the floor for a few seconds before replying. "I really don't have a choice in this situation. The best I can do is give them the opportunity to run away or surrender. If they don't I _have_ to arrest them. That was something I expected when I signed up for this."

He looks up at Megumi from the floor with a slight glint in his eye, "But it doesn't mean I like doing it. I still have no true loyalty to HOLY. They're only a means to an end to me. As soon as I get what I want, we're out of here."

She gives him a small smile and says, "At least you still remember why you've chosen to do this."

"Heh, yeah I guess you're right. Thanks for the reality check, Megumi."

"Hey no problem, someone has to keep you on track. Anyway, who did you get teamed up with for the operation?"

"Oh yeah. They paired me with another "A" class alter user. Her name's Janette. Here, take a look." I hand her my mission folder

Megumi suddenly gets a odd look on her face. "Oh really? And, um, what do you think about her," she says in what sounds like a slightly annoyed tone.

"Uhm..." Rob begins nervously picking at one of the seams on his pants

'I know that's a loaded question, she's getting jealous. She's got a hair trigger right now and I have to try to word my answer just right so she won't kill me on the spot.'

"Well, I'm not too thrilled about having to work with someone at all. But her profile leads me to believe that she at least knows what she's doing. And who knows, I might actually get to have some fun."

"What's that supposed to mean!"

'Damn it.' Rob quickly dives out of the way as the dossier comes flying toward his head and it narrowly misses him as various papers scatter around him. He pops his head back up with his eyes wide open and yells, "What are you doing!" Just in time to see Megumi walking away very quickly and angrily.

Rob stares after her for a couple seconds, nervously waiting to see if anything else will come sailing his way, before sighing in relief. It's then he slowly looks around and realizes that everyone within earshot in the lounge is staring at him. "WHAT!" He says loudly and goes to gather up the scattered papers and quickly walks out of the lounge to go lock himself in his room to keep Megumi from murdering him while he sleeps and get himself ready for tomorrow.

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EARLY THE NEXT MORNING

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Rob is in the middle of an unusually great dream when all of a sudden he's all wet and feels like he's drowning. Rob jolts awake, sputtering and gasping for breath and trying to figure out what's going on. Through his sleep clouded, half-open eyes he sees Megumi standing next to his bed with a sadistic smile on her face and an empty glass in her hand.

"Wake up idiot. You're gonna be late if you don't hurry."

Rob quickly looks at his bedside clock and sees that it says 6:25! "DAMN IT!"

In a flurry of frenzied movement and colorful language Rob leaps out of bed, throws on his uniform, and grabs his bags. All while Megumi stands to the side and watches in amazement at his frantic preparations.

"Damn! I've only got like twenty minutes to get to the ready room! I just gotta hope I have all my stuff with me. I'll see you after the mission is over, Megumi."

Rob rushes toward the door and just as he reaches it he hears Megumi say "Hey, stupid."

Rob turns around just in time to see Megumi toss him his sheathed combat knife, which he deftly catches in mid-air. He looks at Megumi and she is smiling at him. "You forgot that. It's kinda important," Suddenly her look becomes very serious, "Just make sure you come back in one piece or I'll be pissed."

Rob looks at her in silence for a second before breaking into a big smile, "Hey, Don't worry about it. I'll be back in no time. You'll see." And with that he rushes out the door to get to the ready room.

------------------------------------

After a dead run through the maze-like corridors of HOLD Rob finally arrives at the assigned troop ready room. The whole room is alive with both support and military personnel giving and carrying out orders. People are rushing back and forth loading up supplies, performing last-minute maintenance checks on the vehicles, and testing various communication systems and weapons.

He is there for only a few seconds before one of the soldiers comes up to him. His rank badge marks him as one of the squad leaders.

"First Lieutenant Rando Aoki reporting Sir!" He gives Rob a sharp salute.

A slightly bewildered Rob returns the salute. "At ease Lieutenant. Um, can you tell me how preparations are going right now?"

"Yes Sir. The supplies are currently about seventy-five percent loaded, maintenance checks on the command vehicles and the armored jeeps are almost finished, and the testing of the communication and weapons systems are almost complete as well. I estimate we'll be completely finished at least a half an hour ahead of schedule."

Rob stares in amazement at the soldier and says, "Uh... well done Lieutenant. Keep up the good work. Is there anything that I can help out with?"

"No Sir. My men and the support staff have everything under control. But thank you for offering your assistance Sir."

"Oh, one more thing Lieutenant. Have you seen the other HOLY officer assigned to this unit?"

"Yes Sir. The last time I saw her she was near the command vehicle over there." He points to the vehicle near the far end of the ready room.

Rob salutes the soldier, "Thank you very much Lieutenant. You're dismissed." The soldier salutes back and hurries off to finish the last minute preparations.

Rob decides to go and try to find this Janette girl so he walks in the direction that Leieutenant Aoki pointed out. As he gets closer to the command vehicle at the other side of the room he begins to hear a slight noise. It has a regular rhythm and sounds like there is something hitting the side of the vehicle. He walks around the side of the vehicle to see what is going on but before he can, a green ball comes flying at his face! Out of sheer reflex he snatches it out of the air, spins around, and sends it flying back to where it came from.

A girl with long blonde hair and green eyes deftly catches it about two inches from her head.

"What did you do that for!" Rob yells at her.

She smiles good naturedly, "To see if you're as good as I've heard. You passed the test if you were wondering. Plus, that was pretty cool."

Rob looks at her in disbelief. "I take it that you're Janette, right?"

"Well, yeah. And you're my partner, the new guy Rob, right? I mean, the HOLY uniform is a dead giveaway."

"Uh, yeah. What were you doing?"

"Well, I got bored. Everyone seemed to have everything under control so I just went over here to kill some time until it's time to leave. Then you came along and I threw my ball at you."

Rob is about to reply when the lieutenant who spoke to him earlier jogs up to them and salutes both of them.

"Excuse me, Sirs! All final preparations are complete. We are ready to leave at your order."

Janette smiles cheerily and salutes back, "Thanks Lieutenant! We'll be with you in a minute."

With that the Lieutenant Aoki returns her salute and heads toward one of the command vehicles.

Janette turns to Rob, still smiling, and holds her hand out towards him, "Here's to a productive and hopefully fun partnership."

Rob stares at her and her outstretched hand for a second. Finally, he grins and accepts her handshake.

TO BE CONTINUED...

END CHAPTER 6

Thanks to Kat Rhye Lee Dezaraye, Kaikunoyukoyuni, and Allison for their suggestions and proofreading.


	8. Alter Ego Chapter 7: The First One

Alter Ego Chapter 7

I have decided to continue with the same POV from chapter 6.

I do not Own s-CRY-ed or any of the characters other than Rob and Megumi. So... on with the show.

--------------------------

"Excuse me Sir!"

Rob is startled out of his nap by Lieutenant Aoki. "Huh? Wha?" he mutters incoherently as he wipes a small amount of drool from the corner of his mouth.

"We have almost arrived in the next target area. We will be there in about an hour"

"Oh, very good. Tell me when we get there. Carry on Lieutenant." Rob gives him a halfhearted salute and dismisses him. "Ugh... just when I was starting to relax."

It has been a little more than a week since Rob left HOLD to participate in the great native alter hunt. He has been partnered with another A class alter user named Janette for the duration of the mission and put in command of a full platoon of soldiers and hardware. Since the beginning of the mission he has kept mostly to himself, sleeping on top of the command vehicle, reading, occasionally chatting with the troops. He usually only came down when needed or when he gets bored.

They have been relatively fortunate during the past week or so. They have successfully taken over three territories with only slight resistance. There was always the typical militia group that was dead set against letting us into their territory. Rob and Janette have not even had to fight them. When talking and negotiations didn't work, just a little nonlethal show of force from the soldiers would quiet them down very quickly. He was just a little disappointed that the people hadn't

put up just a little more of a fight. He would have.

And of course, in every territory they had come across the local native alter users. It was always just one or two that chose to show themselves and try to stop them. Rob can still remember the first one they came across...

It was about one day after we got into our first assigned territory. The takeover had gone very smoothly and we would be out of the area shortly. The territories closest to the city are relatively small and easy to occupy. We were only stopping long enough to provide cover for the garrison teams to set up shop. This first successful takeover had everyone in high spirits except for me. I knew better. The deeper we got into the lost ground the territories would get bigger, the local population would become less cooperative, and the native alter users would get ALOT stronger. After all, that's where I came from.

We had set up our temporary base on the outskirts of the largest town in the area. It was pretty desolate with some abandoned shacks, random wreckage, and lots of trees and weeds. Most of the soldiers were milling about talking or performing various tasks, Janette was talking to a few soldiers about the best ways to use grenades, rockets, and various other explosives in and out of combat, and I was taking a little nap under a nearby tree with my notebook nearby.

Suddenly I heard panicked yelling and my eyes popped open in time to see two panicked soldiers bailing out of one of the escort jeeps that was currently floating higher and higher into the air. It floated over to the edge of our camp where a rather angry looking teenager was standing. Next to him was what I assumed was his alter. It's an independent type. It looked like a small robot about two feet shorter than it's master. It had a blocky head, long flexible metal arms with what look like the horseshoe type magnets on the ends of them, and on it's chest it had a positive and negative symbol on it.

By this time I had ran over to where the commotion was and Janette and a whole bunch of armed soldiers were also gathering there, leveling their weapons at the teenager.

I scribbled something on my notebook and walked over to Janette and whispered to her, "Come with me. Let's try to settle this without any casualties."

She immediately nodded and said, "OK, we'll try that first."

Janette and I walked past the front rank of soldiers toward the teenager and stop about twenty five feet away from him. When he saw us I caught a brief glimpse of fear on his face but it is gone in a second.

"Stay back!" he yelled, "I want you HOLY assholes out of this territory or I'll kill all of you."

I held up my hand and said, "Hey take it easy. We really don't want to hurt anyone here."

Janette added, "Yeah, we're just passing through. We won't cause any trouble if you don't."

"Bullshit! All the surrounding areas are being taken over by HOLD! Do you honestly think that I'll believe you?"

I gave him one last chance, "Look we really don't want a fight right now. You can surrender with absolutely no problems. If that doesn't work for you, then if you put the jeep down, we'll let you just turn around, walk away, and we'll forget we ever saw you. How does that sound?"

While he was thinking I turned my notebook around behind my back, revealing what I had written to the soldiers: _STAND BY WITH ROCKETS_._ BE QUIET! _After a moment of hesitation I heard a couple soldiers in the back of the ranks quietly walk away to get the rockets.

Meanwhile the teenager has made up his mind. "No way! You guys came barging in here like you own it. I'm going to either force you out of here or die trying."

I sighed heavily, "I see... So now all that remains is to decide who gets to fight you. How do we decide that?"

Janette perked up and says brightly, "Ooh I know! How about rock, paper, scissors!"

Both me and the teenager stared at her in disbelief for a second before I said, "Sure, why not!" And with that the teenager's mouth dropped open completely and he started to look really pissed.

"What are you doing! Do you think this is a joke?"

Janette started things off, "Okay get ready."

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

We both showed our choices. She picked paper, I picked rock.

She threw her hands up in the air and shouted, "Yeah! I win!"

"Yeah, fine. But I get the next one." I muttered, kind of disappointed.

"You assholes! I'll kill all of you! Hit 'em!" He pointed at us and commands his alter to throw the jeep at us.

"NOW!" I yelled and a split second later six rockets streak from the rear ranks of the troops. Five hit the jeep flying towards us, turned it into scrap in midair and it fell to the ground, harmless for the moment. When the smoke and dust cleared I saw that the last rocket was still going in midair. Twisting and turning in the air about ten feet away from the teenager and his alter, but not going an inch closer to either of them.

Janette gasped then said out loud, "He put up a magnetic energy barrier!"

"Heh. That was a dirty trick HOLY man. Too bad it didn't work." He concentrated for a moment and before the timer on the rocket could run out and explode he flexed the field and sent the rocket flying off in another direction where it exploded harmlessly.

I smiled slyly at him, "I just wanted to take the jeep out of the equation. I'm not the one you need to worry about."

"Yeah, you still need to deal with me!" said Janette with an almost maniacal grin on her face as the telltale glow of her alter manifested around her.

'_Excellent, now I can see what she can do.' _I thought to myself, _'Let's see how she handles him.'_

Nearby rocks and bushes broke down into alter mist and gathered around her. Her hair changed color from blonde to a very dark, almost black, shade of green. Then her outfit began to change. Her boots became metallic looking and her HOLY uniform became what appeared to be a green fighting kimono with a circuit-like embroidery pattern on it. It had long sleeves and slits up the sides of the dress up to the top of her legs.

When her transformation was over she adjusted her boots by tapping the tips of her feet on the ground which revealed thin spines on the bottom of the boots. After that she looked directly at the teenager and said sweetly, "To be fair, I'll let you attack first," as small arcs of green electricity crackle around her body.

When I saw that I realized that her alter power is electrical in nature. '_Of course, the spines on her boots must keep her grounded to protect her from sudden power surges'_

The kid got pretty pissed when she said this. "Oh yeah! Fine, you bitch! Take this!"

He gestured toward her, giving a mental command to his alter. The alter faced several of the abandoned shacks and pointed it's arms at them. Both alter and master seemed to strain ever so slightly for a second before I heard the screeching and groaning of metal and wood bending and warping under intense stress. Seconds later, nails, bolts, support beams, roof sections, and various other metal objects ripped free of the shacks and floated into the air around him. I could see him sweating. Moving so many objects at once was really putting a lot of strain on him.

"Let's see if you can handle a few thousand new piercings!" He pointed at her and dozens of sharp fragments of metal instantly flew toward her so fast they make sharp whistling noises as they cut through the air.

But, incredibly, just as the metal shards are about to hit her, I felt a static charge make the hair on my arms and the back of my neck raise up and there was a loud crackling noise, a flare of light, and Janette was gone! She reappeared about twenty feet away from where she disappeared with a smug look on her face. "Wanna try that again tough guy?"

The kid's face turned crimson with anger. He sputtered something that I couldn't quite understand (but it didn't sound very nice) and sends more nails and jagged scrap sailing at her. The result was the same: a loud crackle, a flash of light, and suddenly Janette is in another place, leaving the scrap to embed itself in the ground and nearby trees. No matter how many times he tried, she continued to seemingly teleport all over the place. It was very hard for even me to keep track of her.

'_She's just playing with him. She could end this at any time. Why isn't she?'_

The kid is panting with effort and when she reappears Janette isn't even breaking a sweat. She stands still for a second and says, "You sure you don't want to just surrender? You're a mess. And even if you do somehow manage to beat me, you'll be in no condition to beat my partner." She points at me as I sat cross-legged on the ground watching the fight intently, waiting for my chance to jump in.

Still breathing heavily he says, "I don't care... if I die... as long as I... take some of you with me!"

Janette says, "Sorry, that's not an option" and flashes out of existence and reappears right behind the kid. "It's our job to take you alive." Before he can react she grabs him by the shoulder. He convulses violently as emerald arcs of electricity course through his body. He loses his concentration and his alter disintegrateses before he collapses onto the ground in a twitching heap.

After a brief moment of silence the troops began to cheer and say things like, "We got our first one," "I knew she'd be able to beat him," and "That stupid native didn't stand a chance!"

I got a little annoyed but before I could say anything Janette yells at them, "Hey, Shut up for a second!" The troops immediately freeze. "He's not dead. He's just unconscious. And I don't feel like fighting him again if he wakes up. So hurry and lock him up or do _you_ want to fight him when he snaps out of it?"

They instantly scrambled to get the unconscious kid restrained and moved into the holding area of the command vehicle. When the soldiers are either gone or not paying attention to her she deactivated her alter. Her clothes and hair returned to normal and she kinda slumps down onto the ground, looking weak and exhausted.

I walked over to her and said, "Hey, are you gonna be okay?"

She took a deep breath before replying, "Yeah, I'll be fine. Don't worry about me." she got up off the ground and dusted herself off. "It always takes a lot out of me when I teleport that much. I just need some rest and some food and I'll be back to normal in no time."

"I want to ask you something" I said.

"Sure, go ahead, ask away."

"You had the advantage from the beginning. You were playing with him the whole time. You could have finished things right away, so why didn't you?"

"Well..." she hesitated for a second and bit her bottom lip before replying, "I really don't like killing people, so I wanted to tire him out enough for me to get close and knock him out quickly and easily. I made sure to only give him a big enough charge to knock him out for a couple hours."

"Hmm, I see." I said thoughtfully.

"That's the way I've always done things and how I'll keep doing it."

I smiled appreciatively at her, "I like that outlook. Sometimes it takes more skill to not kill an opponent in a fight like that. I respect that."

"Thanks a lot."

"But..." I said seriously, "...sometimes it is necessary to kill an enemy. Just remember, the alters we're going to face are only going to get stronger the deeper we get into the Lost Ground, so we might come across an enemy that will be too strong to subdue like this kid."

She looked shocked at what I said and then stared up into the sky as if to try and find comfort there before saying, "Yeah, I know that." she suddenly smiled and looked at me with a determined yet happy expression on her face, "But that doesn't mean we can't try, right?"

I grinned back at her, "Sure, why not!"

From that point on we've had an agreement between us. We're gonna do our best to try and take a prisoner alive and only take their lives as an absolute last resort. So far, we have been able to stick to that agreement. But I think we both know that, sooner or later, we will have to break that agreement.

Now fully awake, Rob gets up and goes down the hatch inside the command vehicle to see if there's anything to do. Even when they're traveling between areas there still isn't much to do if you're off duty. 'Hmm, I wonder if Private Wyndham is off duty now. I'll see if he wants to play that awesome fighting game he brought with him.'

But before Rob can find him Lieutenant Aoki comes up to him. "Excuse me sir but you have a call from headquarters."

Rob raises an eyebrow, "Really? Who is it?"

"Someone from tactical and logistics named Megumi."

"Oh! Okay, I'll be right there."

Rob rushed over to the nearest comm console, hits the blinking button near the top of the console and the screen blinks to life and displays a picture of Megumi looking back at him.

"Hey, do ya miss me?" she says smartly.

"Yeah, I definitely do." Rob smirks, "I also miss getting violently woken up by you every morning." he says sarcastically. "I take it you're doing fine?"

"Yeah, but I've been more concerned about you. But if the info I'm getting on your platoon is accurate, you've been doing very well too. A lot of people here are impressed with your progress. Especially since you haven't had a single casualty the entire time."

"Yeah, we've all agreed to try and get this done with as little loss of life as possible."

She smiles, "That's good. I'm very glad to hear that. But unfortunately, I didn't call just to check up on you. I have official orders for you and your platoon."

Rob sighs heavily, "Yeah, I kinda guessed. Alright, what are they?"

"Rufus got some information from the intelligence division about a day ago and he wants you to change course and go into the territory east of your current location."

"Why's that?"

"The information says it is the home territory of a small group of alter users who could pose a problem to the operation. You're orders are to put a stop to the threat."

"Okay, so how am I supposed to find them?"

"This particular gang is known to be very territorial so they'll probably find you before you find them."

"Great. So I'm guessing they're going to be a little annoyed when we roll into their backyard, right?"

"Yeah... probably."

Rob let out a very heavy breath, "Awesome... alright, I'd better go and let everyone know of the change of plans and this new situation. I'll be sure to review the data you sent."

"Okay, good luck. I'm rooting for you." and with that Megumi signed off.

Rob stares at the blank screen for a few seconds longer, lost in thought, before opening up the information that Megumi had sent. After only a couple seconds of reading his eyes widen in surprise.

"What! No way!"

Rob runs over to the comm panel and calls Janette.

"Hey Janette! You there?"

After a second a tired sounding voice comes over speaker, "What is it? You sound frantic."

"We need to stop now. We've got new orders and I have to let everyone know what we're up against."

Her voice sounds concerned and has a slight hint of disbelief as she replies. "Is it really that important?"

"Oh yeah. This is huge! We're stopping now so I can fill everyone in." and with that he signs off.

Rob runs up to the control room in the command vehicle. Once there he finds the communications officer.

"Hey, contact all the other vehicles and tell them to stop. We have new orders. I'll fill them in when everyone is ready."

---About twenty minutes later—

All the vehicles have stopped and the troops and support staff have gathered around where Rob and Megumi are standing. There is a low murmur of conversation through the entire crowd, mostly people asking each other what's going on, with a few scattered yawns and complaints about being woken up so late at night.

Now sure that everyone is present Rob speaks up. "Hey, everyone pay attention! This is important!"

Everyone immediately quiets down and listens to him.

"I just got new orders from HQ. They're sending us on a special mission and I wanted to let you all know what we're going up against." Rob pauses for a second before continuing, "We are going after a small but particularly nasty gang that headquarters has deemed a threat to the mission."

One of the soldiers near the front speaks up, "What's the problem then? We've been handling gangs and native alters the whole mission. We can handle a simple band of rejects."

Rob stares, mildly annoyed, at the soldier and sighs, "I was getting to that. The problem is that this is no normal gang. This gang is called Sadondes and every single major member is a skilled alter user."

That immediately sets off a wave of murmuring through the crowd of soldiers and personnel. Even Janette raises her eyebrow as she looks at me.

"There's no doubt that this is a dangerous situation we're going into, and I don't want any unnecessary fatalities. So when, not if, they find us I want you to follow any order Janette or I give you no matter what it is. Even if it's to retreat. Otherwise it's possible some of you could get killed."

Rob takes a deep breath and continues, "I wouldn't ask you to follow us into such a dangerous situation if I didn't have complete faith in all of your skills. So if you really don't want to get involved in this you can step forward now and I'll get you transferred out tomorrow."

As Rob tensely awaits a reaction, Janette looks back and forth from him to the crowd of soldiers in front of them with a shocked and anxious look on her face. Rob can almost hear people trying to make up their minds. He can hear them moving around and the ever so slight hissing noise of people talking under their breath, either to themselves or to the person next to them, trying to decide what to do.

Rob looks down at the ground and closes his eyes as the crowd grows silent, positive the next thing he hears will be the sound of many boots stepping forward to leave, each one a sign of his failure. Instead, what he hears is a loud, singular shuffling and the sharp noise of boots clicking together. Rob looks up to see every single soldier and personnel standing at attention waiting for him to continue. Even Janette has a grin on her face and gives him an impressed thumbs-up.

He lets out a breath he forgot he was holding and smiles. "Thanks a lot you guys. Then I guess I can take this as a sign that you're all ready for this?"

An audible "YES SIR!" rings out from the crowd. Dispelling any further doubts he has.

"Alright everyone! Lets get going, we've got a job to do!"

With that all of the assembled personnel quickly go back to their vehicles so they can proceed on their way to what is sure to be a very dangerous place...

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author's Notes

I hope you enjoyed the newest chapter. Sorry it took so long, it was a combination of computer problems, school, work, and the fact that I'm a procrastinator in the truest sense of the word. And the fact I found a great website to download all the current episodes of Bleach doesn't help things.

Also, my friend Kat Rhye Lee Dezaraye (aka. Parallel-Blue13115 on has a very nice Scryed fan site called Red Alert. It has a nifty interactive section where you can create a profile of an alter user in either the Lost Ground section or the City. Unfortunately she lost a lot of traffic due to a URL change she had to make so give her site a visit. You can reach her website via the link in her profile. She is also the author of a couple stories like "The Specters Seven" and "Tracing the Windowpane." Both of which are personal favorites of mine. So give them a read.

Also, unfortunately, I lost the memory stick that had all the potential new characters for the story i have gotten from people. So i'm opening this up to all the readers of my story: send me a description of your own character and his/her alter power. Appearance, behavior, afiliation (HOLY, gang, none, etc.) and a thourough description of their alter power. I think getting an idea for a alter power from another person is much more fun and interesting than making them up myself. (plus its also easier!) They're often more unique and personal if you think of what _YOUR_ alter power would be. Also, if you gave me permission to use your character before, please resend me the information. Especially you Taiki Ishikawa. Thanks everyone.

And until next time just remember, Kisuke Urahara ROCKS!


	9. Alter Ego Chapter 8: Sadondes

Alter Ego Chapter 8

I do not own s-CRY-ed or any of the characters except Rob, Megumi, and a couple minor characters. All other original characters were used with permission from the creators.

TWO DAYS AFTER THE LAST CHAPTER...

Rob and Janette's platoon has arrived in their assigned territory not even twelve hours ago. Even so, the tension in the air was so thick you could almost touch it. Rob could feel the uneasiness of everyone around him. They were all a little nervous that Sadondes would attack them at any second. Rob himself was pretty unsettled too.

During his time in the wasteland he had heard plenty of rumors. Those rumors are partly what's making him nervous. The ruthlessness of Sadondes was infamous. They were one of the toughest and most skilled gangs in the Lost Ground.

But the mental images of what they could do to his platoon weren't the only thing that disturbed Rob. It was his knowledge of all the _good_ that they had done for the people in their territory.

They were essentially a modern day version of Robin Hood's merry men with a man named Mahbo as their leader. They stole food, medicine, materials, and equipment for the various towns and villages in their territory. They also served as the peacekeeping force in the area, making it one of the safest territories in sector 3. If you went in there to cause trouble you would be "removed" with extreme force, regardless of whether you're human or an alter user.

Rob takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly in an effort to calm down; It doesn't work.

"Shit..." he mutters under his breath.

"Wow, never thought I'd see you nervous." said a voice from behind him.

"Huh?" Rob looks behind him to see Janette standing there with her hand on her hip and a friendly half-smile on her face. "Are you a mind reader too?"

She shrugs her shoulders, "No, but normally you're so calm that I can tell something's up."

Rob raises an eyebrow, "Really? I hope no one else has noticed."

"Probably not, I've always been pretty good at spotting these types of things."

"Hmmf. Is that so." he mutters to himself.

"DAMN! This is depressing!" Janette says loudly. "Everyone's so nervous they can't even joke around. It's a real downer."

"Personally, I don't see how you can't be even a _little_ nervous." Rob says in an incredulous tone.

"That's easy." she says, pointing a finger right at Rob, "We've had nothing but victories since we got here. Plus, that breakthrough you had on your skill assessment should definitely even things up, right?"

Rob mulls it over in his head for a second, after all, they had been doing really well lately, "You might be right...but..."

"AND..." she interrupts, "...all of you are tired and that's making you think about this way too much. We're stopping tonight to have some fun."

Still staring at her in disbelief, Rob tries to talk her out of stopping. "You _do_ realize that we'll probably be attacked as soon as we stop."

"Don't worry about it. I've got everything under control. It's all part of my plan."

"Plan?"

"And you're sure this 'plan' will work?"

"Absolutely, positively sure." she says enthusiastically.

Rob sighs heavily and raises his hands in a defeated gesture, "Fine. But I'm not gonna be held responsible if something goes wrong."

"Don't worry. Nothing will."

At a location not too far away from where Rob and Janette's platoon is, five people gather in a small circle.

"So... what do you guys have?" says a short, but solid looking, young man. He is wearing a slightly tattered leather jacket, flight goggles strapped on top of his head and has a fairly large looking backpack. He has tanned skin, a shaved head and short, trimmed goatee-like facial hair. "What're we up against?" He immediately pulls out a small handheld video game and begins to play, seemingly not paying attention anymore.

Another tall, athletic teenager to his left speaks up, "Well Mahbo, I was able to get a pretty good look at how many people they have." This young man has short blonde hair and has the kind of look on his face that makes it seem like he sees much more than he lets on. Compared to other residents of the Lost Ground he is impeccably dressed. His black pants, long sleeved shirt and general appearance are amazingly clean and well taken care of. "By my count, I figure they have about a hundred soldiers or so and only two HOLY alter users."

"Hmph, only two? They must really not think much of us if they only sent two HOLY officers." says a, now annoyed, young woman. This attractive teenager has short black hair that ends about two or three inches above her shoulders and has rather fair features, long legs and average breasts. She is wearing tight, light brown cargo pants and a black sleeveless t-shirt. "Look Mahbo, I really don't think all of us need to be here. I'll be able to get rid of them without any problems."

The young man to her right began to chuckle, "Come on. Your not the only one here that enjoys a good fight my dear. You can pick one to kill and I'll get the other, I don't care." This teenager has long, shiny, black hair tied back into a tight ponytail with a single, thin shock of hair dropping down over his face. His eyes have very dark rings under them, almost like he hasn't slept in a very long time. Whatever clothes he is wearing are hidden underneath a cloak that is a shade of blue so dark it's almost black. "This whole thing will be all to easy to finish."

"That is where you are wrong my friends." said the final member of the group in a raspy voice that sounds like it is rarely used. He is a small, frail looking young man with scraggly brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He is wearing what appears to be a patchwork collection of camouflage clothing with numerous ragged strips hanging off of it. "I have been looking into the two HOLY officers in command of that platoon and they are not to be taken lightly. They have beaten everyone they fought against, with little or no injuries." his face darkens a little, "Plus, there is another interesting little piece of information."

Mahbo looks up from playing the video game and raises his eyebrow, "Oh... and what is it."

"Well it seems that the male HOLY officer is someone quite well known to most of us here."

"Who is it? Spit it out already!" snaps Mahbo.

Slightly flustered, he continues "Well, it seems he is none other than the infamous Demon Blade."

The silence that followed was almost deafening and Mahbo, who seems to have forgotten about the video game is now focused intently on the frail young man in front of him.

"Are you serious?" said the woman.

"Quite serious, and it appears that he's improved considerably, though I can't be exactly sure how much since it seems he's barely broken a sweat on his last few opponents."

"Hah, I was wondering why we haven't heard anything about him lately." Mahbo said, sounding slightly amused. "He disappeared a few months ago, now we know where he went."

"Yeah, but the question is why?" said the blond young man in a perplexed tone, "He never really struck me as someone who would sell out to the city like that. Wasn't he always big on keeping to himself?"

"Yeah, he was." said Mahbo, "But regardless of who he is, he's our enemy now. What about his partner?"

"Um well, I don't know much about her specifically." The frail teenager continued, "But I've been observing her powers and she has a pretty powerful alter. It seems to be electricity based and it appears that she can teleport herself from one place to another almost instantaneously. But it also seems that it takes a lot of effort for her to maintain for long periods."

"Well, no matter how strong they are, they still don't stand a chance." a grinning Mahbo said, "But, I'm not stupid either so I'll come along with you, just in case." he said with a wink.

"Hmph. Fine. Do what you want." said the cloaked young man.

"Good! I will." Mahbo says with a huge grin on his face. "Now that we've figured out what's what, lets show those HOLY shitheads what some real native alters can do."

TO BE CONTINUED...

Sorry about the long time for this chapter to be put up, I was stuck on a couple things for a while and school has really been a pain in the ass lately.

Thanks to my friend Phil I was able to think up alter powers for Mahbo and other people contributed for the other members of Sadondes namely Sage Malachi and Kat . If you don't know who they are they are a gang mentioned briefly in the anime between Kazuma and Kimishima before they attack the HOLY patrol.

There is plenty of good news to report, I had a picture made of Rob and his alter power. It is currently in the Scryed fan art section on Kingdom Hearts II has FINALLY been released, AND **Bleach has officially been licensed by Viz and it is only a matter of time before it is brought over to the U.S.! HOORAH!**

For those of you who haven't seen Bleach yet, what's the matter with you! Go download it! You can get it via direct download from 


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